Cypress. 
189 
And emblem of woe the tree has been ever since. Lucan tells 
us of 
“ The cypress by the noble mourner worn.” 
Virgil invariably introduces it into the burial rites of his 
heroes; he describes “ the sweet cypress ” as “ sign of deadly 
bale.” Tasso, who also designated this tree “the funereal 
cypress,” remarks that at Dudon’s burial, 
“ Of cypress sad a pile his friends compose, 
Under a hill o’ergrown with cedars tall; 
Beside the hearse a fruitful palm-tree grows 
(Ennobled since by this great funeral), 
Where Dudon’s corpse they softly laid in ground.” 
Statius also alludes to its being thus used at burials ; and in 
the Italian Arcadia, the shepherd bids his-friend perform the 
last pious offices for him, and “ make me a tomb amongst 
cypresses.” Spenser, lamenting the loss of Sir Philip Sidney, 
requests 
“ Instead of garlands, wear sad cypress now; ” 
and again, in his “ Faerie Queen,” amongst other gloomy 
emblems, he says, 
“There mournful cypress grew.” 
Shakspeare several times alludes to its ominous character; 
and in the Second Part of “ Henry VI.,” the Earl of Suffolk, 
when invoking curses upon his enemies, would have 
“ Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress-trees.” 
Cowley, in his lines to the memory of Mrs. Hervey, refers 
to its mythological origin as well as its inauspicious reputation. 
In turning to modern poets, one finds no lack of references 
to the melancholy omen of this tree. Sir Walter Scott leads 
the sad procession with a doleful song: 
“ O lady, twine no wreath for me, 
Or twine it of the cypress-tree.” 
Byron beautifully terms it that 
“Dark tree! still sad when other’s grief is fled, 
The only constant mourner o’er the dead. ” 
Robert Montgomery deemed its associations too sombre 
even for death: 
