33 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
a morter, as thoughe you woulde have the juyce out of 
theym wyth Rose Water, and so water theym and 
drye theym agayne often tymes, and thanne make 
theim a poulder, the whyche you shal parfume wyth 
the poulder of Cypre, as the other aforesayde, and 
keepe it in a vyolle.” 
The recipe mentions another use, that of rose¬ 
water, to which Shakespeare himself thus refers : 
Let one attend him with a silver basin* 
Full of rose-water and bestrewed with flowers. 
Taming of the Shrew , Induct, i. 55. 
There is also a reference to “ cakes of roses,” made 
of the dried leaves and sold by apothecaries for 
much the same purposes as the pot-pourri of our 
grandmothers (Romeo and Juliet , V. i. 47). 
By many the rose is considered to be that flower 
of Venus which Cupid consecrated to Harpocrates, 
the God of Silence ; it was therefore a fit symbol of 
discretion, and in ancient entertainments chaplets 
of roses were worn, and secrets spoken thus sub rosa 
were never revealed (Brand, ii. 345). Chaplets of 
roses were also carried before the funerals of un 
married women in many parts of England. They 
were formed of white roses, and had a pair of kid 
gloves attached, and were preserved in the church. 
The line in Hamlet (V. i. 56) : 
Yet here she is allowed her virgin Grants 
is said by Brand to have reference to the custom. 
Roses, too, were among the flowers anciently strewn 
on graves—Paris had been strewing Juliet’s “bridal 
bed” when he fell in with Romeo and his death. 
The many quotations in which we find the rose 
mentioned, now as an object of Nature, anon in a 
* These rose-water basins are some of the handsomest 
pieces of plate of the great City companies. 
