FLORAL CEREMONIES. 
119 
the Elizabethan era, makes this playful allusion 
in his Epithalamium : — 
“ Now busie maydens, strew sweet flowres, 
Much like our bride in virgin state,— 
Now fresh, then prest, soone dying; 
The death is sweet, and must be yours, 
Time goes on crutches till that date, 
Birds fledged must needes be flying.” 
Christopher Brooke. 
Then again, in the play of “the Two Noble 
Kinsmen,” we find a very sweet bridal-song, 
beginning thus: — 
“ Boses, their sharp spines being gone, 
Not royal in their smells alone, 
But in their hue; 
Maiden-pinks, of odors faint, 
Daisies, smell-less, yet most quaint, 
And sweet thyme true, 
“ Primrose, first-born child of ver, 
Merry spring-time’s harbinger. 
With her bells dim; 
Oxlips, in their cradles growing. 
Marigolds on death-beds blowing. 
Lark-heels trim. 
