SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
S3 
And in the Winter s Tale , IV. iv. 74, 
For you there’s rosemary and rue. 
Hooker says it is not known in a wild state. Among 
the many medical purposes for which it was em¬ 
ployed was its use as a plague remedy. Two 
versions of these remedies I give from curious old 
Alexis : 
“ Take whyte Dictanium, rounde Aristolochia, 
Crodilium, called also Cardina or Cardua Verveyne, 
Gentian seduaris, an herbe called in Latin pes milui , 
of eche of them two unces, stampe all thys a lyttle 
wyth a handfull of Rue ; than take a violle that 
holdeth at the leaste three quartes, and fyll it wyth 
the best wyne that you canne fynde, whereinto you 
shall putte all the foresayde thinges, and leave it to 
standynge in youre house: and in dangerous tymes 
take everye mornynge before you goe out of your 
house halfe a glasse-full of the sayd wyne, but you 
must have taken fyrst a walnutte, a fygge and twoo 
or three lytle braunches of Rue.” 
Another against the plague : 
“ Take the toppe of Rue, a garlicke head and half 
a quarter of a walnutte and a corne of salte. Eat 
thys every mornynge, contynuing so a muneth 
together and be merry and jocunde ” (Alexis, 
p. 38). 
It is not a long walk from the garden of “ herbes 
of sweet savour” to the vegetable-garden, and here 
again certain species of plants, if the gardening be 
neglected, will be found in blossom. The first is the 
cool salad plant, the lettuce, a member of the vast 
order Compositae, brought to us from the East at some 
long-forgotten date, perchance by the Romans, who 
certainly grew it. All we know is it was grown in 
1562. It is the Lactuca sativa of Linnaeus, and several 
allied species are found wild with us, though three at 
