368 THE GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE 
Such was the Elizabethan garden in its general outlines; the 
sort of garden which Shakespeare must have often seen both in 
Warwickshire and in London. According to our present ideas 
such a garden would be too formal and artificial, and we may 
consider that the present fashion of our gardens is more accord¬ 
ing to Milton’s idea of Eden, in which there grew— 
£ ‘ Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art, 
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon 
Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plaine.” 
Paradise Lost, book iv. 
None of us probably would now wish to exchange the straight 
walks and level terraces of the sixteenth century for our wind¬ 
ing walks and undulating lawns, in the laying out of which the 
motto has been “ ars est celare artem ”— 
‘ ‘ That which all faire workes doth most aggrace, 
The art, which all that wrought, appeareth in no place.” 
F. Q ., ii. xii. 58. 
Yet it is pleasant to look back upon these old gardens, and to 
see how they were cherished and beloved by some of the 
greatest and noblest of Englishmen. Spenser has left on record 
his judgment on the gardens of his day—■ 
“To the gay gardens his unstaid desire 
Him wholly carried, to refresh his sprights ; 
There lavish Nature, in her best attire, 
Poures forth sweete odors and alluring sights : 
And Arte, with her contending, doth aspire 
To excell the naturall with made delights ; 
And all, that faire or pleasant may be found, 
In riotous excesse doth there abound. 
m # • • • • 
There he arriving around about doth flie, 
From bed to bed, from one to other border ; 
And takes survey, with curious busie eye, 
Of every flowre and herbe there set in order. ”— Muiopotmos . 
Clearly in Spenser’s eyes the formalities of an Elizabethan 
garden (for we must suppose he had such in his thoughts) did 
not exclude nature or beauty. 
