THE GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE 371 
their fine flowers, as they would be with so many jewels, for 
the roots of many of them being small and of great value may 
soon be conveyed away, and a clean tale fair told, that such a 
root is rotten or perished in the ground if none be seen where 
it should be, or else that the flower hath changed his colour 
when it hath been taken away, or a counterfeit one hath been 
put in the place thereof ; and thus many have been deceived 
of their daintiest flowers, without remedy or true knowledge of 
the defect.” And again, “idle and ignorant gardeners who 
get names by stealth as they do many other things.” This is 
not a pleasant picture either of the skill or honesty of the 
sixteenth-century gardeners, but there must have been skilled 
gardeners to keep those curious-knotted gardens in order, so 
as to have a “ ver perpetuum all the year,” And there must 
have been men also who had a love for their craft; and if 
some stole the rare plants committed to their charge, we must 
hope that there were some honest men amongst them, and 
that they were not all like old Andrew Fairservice, in “ Rob 
Roy,” who wished to find a place where he “wad hear pure 
doctrine, and hae a free cow’s grass, and a cot and a yard, and 
mair than ten punds of annual fee,” but added also, “and 
where there’s nae leddy about the town to count the Apples.” 
iv.—(Barbeitutg ©petitions, 
A. Pruning, etc. 
(1) But, poor old man, thou prunest a rotten tree, 
That cannot so much as a blossom yield 
In lieu of all thy pains and industry. 
As You Like It, ii. 3, 63. 
(2) Go, bind thou up yon dangling Apricocks, 
Which, like unruly children, make their sire 
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight t 
Give some supportance to the bending twigs. 
Go thou, and like an executioner, 
Cut off the heads of too-fast growing sprays, 
