PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
347 
(2) For I had then laid Wormwood to my dug. 
When it did taste the Wormwood on the nipple 
Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool. 
Romeo and Juliet, i. 3, 26. 
( 3 ) 
( 4 ) 
Wormwood, Wormwood. —Hamlet, iii. 2, 191. 
Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame, 
Thy private feasting to a public fast, 
Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name, 
Thy sugar’d tongue to bitter Wormwood last e.—Lucrece, 890. 
See also Dian’s Bud, p. 81. 
Wormwood is the product of many species of Artemisia, a 
family consisting of 180 species, of which we have four in 
England. The whole family is remarkable for the extreme 
bitterness of all parts of the plant, so that “as bitter as 
Wormwood” is one of the oldest proverbs. The plant was 
named Artemisia from Artemis, the Greek name of Diana, and 
for this reason : “Verily of these three Worts which we named 
Artemisia, it is said that Diana should find them, and delivered 
their powers and leechdom to Chiron the Centaur, who first 
from these Worts set forth a leechdom, and he named these 
Worts from the name of Diana, Artemis, that is, Artemisias.” 
—Herbarium Apulcei , Cockayne’s translation. The Worm¬ 
wood was of very high reputation in medicine, and is thus 
recommended in the Stockholm MS.: 
“ Lif man or woman, more or lesse 
In his head have gret sicknesse 
Or gruiance or any werking 
Awoyne he take wt. owte lettyng 
It is called Southernwode also 
And hony eteys et spurge stamp yer to 
And late hy yis drunk, fastined drinky 
And his hed werk away schall synkyn.” 1 
1 Wormwood had a still higher reputation among the ancients, as the 
following extract shows : 
3 A prefXLffla [xovokAwvos., 
(pevyei, jjv r is exv iv odea, /cal (pda/uara Setvd. 
Anonynii Carmen de Herbis , in “ Poetce BucoliciS 
