SHAKESPEARE GARDEN PLANTS

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Among Shakespeare's stories of murders, love affairs and betrayls, are many references to plants and flowers. Perhaps one of his most famous quotes in reference to a flower is, "Of all the flowers, methinks a rose is best". Below are listed some of the plants mentioned in his plays, and a description of how he used them.

Acorn cups

Acorns are the fruits of the oak. These are ovoid in shape and enclosed within a capsule formed from the bracts of the flower; the latter structures are called acorn cups.

Shakespeare suggests that these cups form the hiding places for the elves, the supernatural mischief-mongers. The reference is to be found in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, a play full of fairies and fairy tricks.

Bur, Arctium lappa

A member of Compositae, it has flower heads surrounded by a close involucre of spiny bracts. After fertilisation they become brown, tough and hooked and form what is popularly known as bur. Because of this, the burs stick.

In ‘As You Like It’, Celia consoles her cousin, Rosalind, telling her that if she does not with effort shake off her sorrows, they tend to stick. This is what Celia tells Rosalind: “They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday foolery: if we walk not in the trodden paths, our very petty coats will catch them.”
(As You Like It. Act. 1, Se, 3)

There is another reference to burs in ‘Troilus and Cressida’. Pandarus, Cressida’s uncle, helps to bring together Troilus and Cressida, the two lovers. Cressida was difficult to woo but in the end gave in to the pleadings of Troilus, swearing eternal love for him. Finally, however, she betrays him and transfers her affections to Diomedes, a Grecian commander. When Troilus was not sure that Cressida has requitted his love, her uncle assures him: “Our kindred, though they be long ere they are wooed, they are constant being won: they are burs, I can tell you; they’ll stick where they are thrown.”
(Troilus and Cressida. Act. III, Se. 2)

Carduus benedictus
This plant has an honoured place because it is the only one referred to by its Latin name in all the plays of Shakespeare. The reference occurs in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Margaret suggests that Beatrice should take distilled Carduus benedictus. The plant was deliberately chosen, for its specific name suggested the name of Benedick, between whom and Beatrice, a love affair was sought to be promoted.

Further, this plant was supposed to be a cure-all in the medieval times. Elizabethan herbalists asserted that it was a “preservative against all disease”.

Carduus benedictus is a thistle, its leaves and flower heads being spiny. It belongs to the sunflower family, Compositae.

Cedar
Cedar is a name given to many genera, falling under different groups.

But all references to this tree in the Shakespearean plays indicate that it is the cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus libani, a coniferous tree. Cedar always stood for stateliness and strength, and therefore when Prospero speaks of:

“The strong-based promontory
Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck’d up
The pine and cedar.”
(Tempest, Act. V, Se. 1)

He makes us fully appreciate the might of his magical powers.

There are references to cedar in Cymbeline as also in Henry VI and in both the instances, the grandeur of the tree is beautifully brought out. Below is a beautiful passage from Henry VI which impresses on the reader’s mind an inerasable picture of this tree.

“Thus yields the cedar to the axe’s edge,
Whose arms give shelter to the princely eagle,
Under whose shade the ramping lion slept,
Whose top-branch overpeered jove’s spreading tree,
And kept low shrubs from winter’s powerful wind.”
(King Henry VI, Part III, Act V, Se. 2)

Cedrus deodora
It must be of interest to the Indian readers to learn that the Himalayan deodar is Cedrus deodora, references to whose majesty and grace are quite many in Kalidasa’s works.

Cowslips

The cowslips are closely related to primrose. Their leaves are pressed to the ground, from the centre of which grows out a tall, vertical stalk bearing an umbel of flowers.

The flowers are of a golden yellow, with an orange patch at the base of each petal.

Now see what the fairy tells Puck. She is the servant of the fairy queen and is on her rounds of service and her duty for the night was:

“And I serve the fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours.”
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act. II, Se. 1)

There is a reference to cowslips in Cymbeline, and it is a reference that leads to the tragic end. Lachimo, the villain, enters into a wager with the banished Posthumus Leonatus, that he would certainly be able to win the love of Imogen, provided he gets the opportunity. Posthumus, sure of the fidelity of Imogen’s love accepts the challenge.

Iachimo succeeds in meeting Imogen with the help of a letter given him by Posthumus but there it ends. He could not succeed in winning Imogen away from Posthumus. Reluctant to accept defeat, he falsely reports to Posthumus the body-marks of Imogen, having seen them from a hiding while she was asleep. This is what he notes down for his report:’

"..........On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I’ the bottom of a cowslip. Here’s voucher
Stronger than ever law could make: this secret
Will force him think I’ve pick’d the lock and ta’en
The treasure of her honour."

[Above taken from: http://www.chennaionline.com/columns
/variety/05botanic.asp.]

Aspen

O, had the monster seen those lily hands
Tremble, like aspen leaves upon a lute

Titus Andronicus, II(4)44

Onions, Garlic

Mine eyes smell Onions, I shall weep anon:
Good Tom Drum, lend me a handkercher.

All’s Well that Ends Well, V(3) 321

And most dear actors, eat no Onions nor
Garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.

Midsummer Night’s Dream, IV(2) 42

Cherry

So we grew together,
Like to a double Cherry, seeming parted,
But yet a union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.

Midsummer Night’s Dream, III(2)139

Poppy, Mandragora

Not Poppy or Mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou ownedst yesterday

Othello, III,(3)330

Hemlock

Roots of Hemlok digg’d I’ the dark.

Macbeth, IV(1)25

Balsamum

I have conveyed aboard, and I have brought
The oil, the Balsamum, and aqua vitae.

Comedy of Errors, IV(1)187


Rose
When I have plucked the Rose,
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It needs must wither. I’ll smell it on the tree

Othello,V(2)86.

Flowers
Though other things grow fair against the sun,
Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe

Othello, II(3) 382

The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die;
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Venus and Adonis, (1079)


Gardens & Gardeners
’Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens,
to the which our wills are gardeners; so that if we will plant Nettles
or sow Lettuce, set Hyssop, and weed up Thyme, supply it with one gender
of herbs or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness,
or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of
this lies in our wills.

Othello, I(3)322

Come my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers,
and grave-makers; they hold up Adam’s profession.

Hamlet, V(1)34.


[Above taken from: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/
history/lecture37/lec37.html]

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