37 o THE GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE 
a grave and wise philosopher as Bacon, of such a grand hero 
as Raleigh, of such poets as Spenser and Shakespeare. 
hi— (Sarbenevs. 
(1) But stay, here come the gardeners ; 
Let’s step into the shadow of these trees. 
Thou, old Adam’s likeness, set to dress this garden, 
How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news? 
What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee 
To make a second fall of cursed man? 
Why dost thou say King Richard is deposed ? 
Darest thou, thou little better thing than earth, 
Divine his downfal ?—Richard II, iii, 4, 24, 72. 
(2) Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, 
ditchers, and grave-makers ; they hold up Adam’s profession. 
Hamlet, v. 1, 34. 
Very little is recorded of the gardeners of the sixteenth 
century, by which we can judge either of their skill or their 
social position. Gerard frequently mentions the names of 
different persons from whom he obtained plants, but without 
telling us whether they were professional or amateur gardeners 
or nurserymen; and Hakluyt has recorded the name of Master 
Wolfe as gardener to Henry VIII. Certainly Richard II.’s 
Queen did not speak with much respect to her gardener, 
reproving him for his “harsh rude tongue,” and addressing 
him as a “little better thing than earth”—but her angry grief 
may account for that. Parkinson also has not much to say 
in favour of the gardeners of his day, but considers it his duty 
to warn his readers against them : “ Our English gardeners are 
all, or the most of them, utterly ignorant in the ordering of 
their outlandish (i. e. exotic) flowers as not being trained to 
know them. . . . And I do wish all gentlemen and gentle¬ 
women, whom it may concern for their own good, to be as 
careful whom they trust with the planting and replanting of 
