ROSE. 
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emblem of joy. Accordingly, Comus, the god of 
feasting, was represented as a handsome young 
man, crowned with a garland of Roses, whose 
leaves glistened with dew-drops. As it was well 
known, even in those early times, that when the 
heart is full the mouth will run over, especially 
during the intoxication of mirth or of pleasure, the 
ancients feigned that sportive Cupid presented a 
Rose to Harpocrates, the grave god of silence, and 
thus made this flower a symbol of secrecy and 
silence. As such, a Rose was fastened up over the 
table at entertainments, that the sight of the flower 
might remind the guests that the mirthful sallies in 
which any of them might indulge were not to be 
proclaimed in the market-place. This custom gave 
rise to the saying “ under the rose,” which was 
equivalent to an injunction of secrecy. 
The Rose became celebrated in English history, 
from its having been adopted in the fifteenth cen¬ 
tury as the badge of the rival houses of York and 
Lancaster, the white being chosen by the former, 
the red by the latter. Shakspeare, in his Henry the 
Sixth, represents this feud as having originated in 
the Temple Garden. The Earls of Somerset, Suf- 
6 
