Juniper. 
221 
“ Oh! what was love made for, if ’t is not the same 
Through joy and through torment, through glory and shame? 
I know not, I ask not if guilt’s in that heart, 
I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art. 
“Thou hast called me thy angel in moments of bliss, 
And thy angel I ’ll be ’mid the horrors of this; 
Through the furnace unshrinking thy steps to pursue, 
And shield thee and save thee—or perish there too ! ” 
Such is the love which woman gives to man—Heaven grant it 
be rewarded ! 
In the “Decameron” of Boccaccio, there is a passage in¬ 
tended to illustrate the particularly magnificent manner in 
which his heroes and heroines passed their voluntary exile in 
a country retreat; and not the least sign of their grandeur was 
the fact of their having the room where they met strewed with 
flowers of the juniper ; for, in those “good old days,” as they 
are so absurdly styled, even when Elizabeth was queen, carpets 
were a luxury unknown in the mansions of the richest in the 
land, and folks had no better covering for their floors than 
dried leaves and rushes. 
Brooks, in his travels in Norway and Sweden, informs us 
that the custom of strewing the floors with juniper in lieu of 
carpets is still general in those countries. In one part of his 
travels in Norway, he remarks, “On entering my little chamber, 
I was agreeably surprised to find everything exceedingly neat 
and clean. The floor was strewed, as is the custom, with tops 
of the juniper, which diffused a delightful fragrance around, in 
the most agreeable manner inviting sleep.” 
Virgil, as rendered by Dryden, represents the shelter of the 
juniper as anything but desirable : 
“ Now let us rise, for hoarseness oft invades 
The singer’s voice who sings beneath the shades : 
From juniper unwholesome dews distil.” 
This ominous character of its shade is further corroborated by 
old Fairfax, in his translation of Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered,” 
—although, singular to relate, the original offers nothing to 
warrant the aspersion: 
“Sweet juniper, whose shadow hurted sore.” 
