THE WHITE ROSE. 
99 
praise that Ferdinand bestows on Miranda, altering a 
word to suit the occasion : — 
/ 
“ But you, oh you, 
So perfect and so peerless, are created 
Of every blossom’s best.” 
I know not whether the white rose may lay claim to an 
equal share of classical and poetical association Avith its 
blushing sister; its supposed origin, hoAvever, is at least 
as fanciful, as it Avas said by the ancients to spring 
from the tears of Venus on the death of Adonis. It 
also shares another unenvied distinction; that of being 
the chosen badge of the Yorkists, as the red rose Avas 
of the Lancastrians, in the civil Avars between the 
two houses. This circumstance Avas made the subject 
of prediction by Gray’s bard : 
“ Above, below, the rose of snow 
Twined with her blushing foe, avc spread.” 
In “ Henry the Sixth,” Shakspeare gives us a long and 
somewhat tedious account of the choosing of the floral 
devices by the opposing parties. We could have AA r ished 
some more appropriate badge had been selected, as it 
is an effort, and a painful one, to associate the idea of 
H 2 
