PRIMROSE . 
» 
(Youth.) 
“The primrose I will pu’, the firstling of the year.”— Burns. 
HE Primrose , emblematical of youth , has received 
innumerable deservedly warm encomiums from 
our poets, but none sweeter than those popular 
lines of Carew :— 
“ Ask me why I send yon here 
This firstling of the infant year ; 
Ask me why I send to you 
This primrose all bepearled with dew ; 
I straight will whisper in your ears 
The sweets of love are washed with tears. 
“ Ask me why this flower doth show 
So yellow, green, and sickly too ; 
Ask me why the stalk is weak 
And bending, yet it doth not break ; 
I must tell you, these discover 
What doubts and fears are in a lover.” 
Shakspeare, whose floral symbolism was perfect, intro¬ 
duces this delicate blossom into his pathetic drama of 
“ Cymbeline,” as typical of the youthful dead : 
“ With fairest flowers, 
Whilst Summer lasts, and I live here, Fid el e, 
I’ll sweeten thy sad grave : thou shalt not lack 
The flower that’s like thy face, pale primrose.” 
Again, in the “ Winter’s Tale,” the grand dramatist 
