100 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
jarring interest and civil broil with a thing so meekly 
beautiful as the rose, especially “ this pale and maiden 
blossom here.” There are several allusions in the same 
play to the rival flowers. The king, in his piteous 
lament at the sight of a father bearing from the battle¬ 
field the son whom he had unwittingly killed, ex¬ 
claims : 
“ 0 pity, pity, gentle Heaven, pity ! 
The red rose and the white are on his face, 
The fatal colours of our striving houses.” 
And thus, again, in “Richard the Third,” after the 
battle of Bosworth, Richmond, alluding to his anticipated 
marriage with the heiress of the house of York, says, 
“We will unite the white rose with the red : 
Smile Heaven upon this fair conjunction 
That long hath frown’d upon their enmity.” 
Hay Drummond presented the following elegant im¬ 
promptu with a white rose to a lady of the Lancastrian 
party: 
“ If this pale rose offend thy sight, 
It in thy bosom wear, 
’T will blush to find itself less white, 
And grow Lancastrian there.” 
