PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
333 
were cut off before the full beauty of summer had come. This 
was prettily expressed by H. Vaughan, the Silurist— 
“ So Violets, so doth the primrose fall 
At once the spring’s pride and its funeral, 
Such early sweets get off in their still prime, 
And stay not here to wear the foil of time ; 
While coarser flowers, which none would miss, if past, 
To scorching summers and cold winters last.” 
Daphnis , 1678. 
It was from this association that they were looked on as apt 
emblems *of those who enjoyed the bright springtide of life 
and no more. This feeling was constantly expressed, and 
from very ancient times. 1 We find it in some pretty lines of 
Prudentius—- 
“Nos tecta fovebimus ossa 
Violis et fronde frequente, 
Titulumque et frigida saxa 
Liquido spargemus odore. ” 
Shakespeare expresses the same feeling in the collection of 
“ purple Violets and Marigolds ” which Marina carries to hang 
“as a carpet on the grave” (No. 14), and again in Laertes’ 
wish that Violets may spring from the grave of Ophelia (No. 8), 
on which Steevens very aptly quotes from Persius’ Satires— 
“e tumulo fortunataque fa villa 
Nascentur Violae.” 
In the same spirit Milton, gathering for the grave of Lycidas— 
“ Every flower that sad embroidery wears,” 
gathers among others “ the glowing Violet ”; and the same 
thought is repeated by many other writers. 
There is a remarkable botanical curiosity in the structure of 
the Violet which is worth notice : it produces flowers both 
in spring and autumn, but the flowers are very different. In 
spring they are fully formed and sweet-scented, but they are 
mostly barren and produce no seed, while in autumn they are 
1 See “ Anthol. Gr. ” App., 120. 
