SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
56 
I had rather live 
With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far, 
Than feed on cates, and have him talk to me. 
Yet another recipe may be inserted before we pass 
on to the next plant : 
“A goodly and a pleasaunt secrete to heale the 
coughe, in rubbyng of the soales of the feete, and is 
a thynge very easy and certayne. Take two or 
three garlyke heades well mundified and made 
cleane, stampe them well, then put to them hogges 
sewot, and stampe them well anew : and at nyghte 
whenne you goe to bedde warme well the soales of 
youre feete, and annoynte them well with the sayd 
confection, and then warme them agayne as hote as 
you may endure, rubbynge them welle a preatye 
space : and beyng abedde, let youre feete be bounde 
with some warme lynnen cloathe, and rubbe also the 
smalle of your legges with the sayde oyntemente, by 
this meanes you shall be healed in three nyghtes 
(Alexis, p. 36). 
The companion plant of the order and genus, the com¬ 
mon onion, Allium cepa, L., apparently came originally 
from Spain, but, like the garlic, had long been culti¬ 
vated, and was considered a most healthy and useful 
food. Stevens tells us that tender onions eaten in 
honey give health, that the juice is a remedy for 
baldness, that it is good for the complexion, and 
takes away white spots from the face, while, 
“ mingled with hen's grease, it drieth up the kibes,” 
and last, but not least, mixed with honey and salt, is 
a soveraigne remedy against the bite of a mad dog 
(p. 221). 
Shakespeare uses it in very much the same way 
that he handles garlic in the advice to the players 
already quoted, but he also mentions the effect of 
its vapour on the sight : 
