Hearts-ease. 
167 
herb which such physicians as are licensed to blaspheme by 
authority, without danger of having their tongues burned 
through with a hot iron, called an ‘herb of the Trinity.’ It is 
also called by those that are more moderate,” he adds,. “‘Three- 
faces-in-a-hood ‘ love-in-idleness ; ’ ‘ call-me-to-you ; ’ and in 
Sussex we call them ‘ pancies.’ ” 
Our old writers had many different methods of spelling this 
flower’s name, and Ben Jonson’s mode comes nearer the 
French sound than does the modern style of orthography. 
He says, 
“Now the shining meads 
Do boast the paunse, lily, and the rose, 
And every flower doth laugh as zephyr blows.” 
Dryden, translating one of Virgil’s “ Pastorals,” introduces 
the pansy amongst sweet plants in general, but apparently 
only to depict its want of fragrance. 
“ Pansies to please the sight, and cassia sweet to smell,” 
he sings ; but, though the smaller varieties are scentless, some 
of the larger ones have a pleasant perfume—scarcely so power¬ 
ful, however, even to the most sensitive nostrils, as Drayton 
would have us believe : 
“ The pansy and. the violet here, 
As seeming to descend 
Both from one root, a very pair, 
For sweetness do contend. 
“ And pointing to a pink to tell 
Which bears it, it is loth 
To judge it; but replies, for smell, 
That it excels them both. 
“ Wherewith displeased they hang their heads, 
So angry soon thy grow, 
And from their odoriferous beds 
Their sweets at it they throw. ” 
Milton introduces this little favourite into the wreaths 
brought to Sabrina by the grateful shepherds : 
“ The shepherds at their festivals 
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, 
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream, 
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.” 
Heart’s-ease is not so modern an appellation for this flower 
as is generally supposed. Bunyan, in his “ Pilgrim’s Progress,” 
represents the guide as saying to Christiana and her children, 
of a boy who was singing beside his sheep, “ Do you hear him? 
I will dare to say this boy leads a merrier life, and wears more 
