The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 12

(5) _Puck._

For Briers and Thorns at their apparel s.n.a.t.c.h.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (29).

(6) _Hermia._

Never so weary, never so in woe, Bedabbled with the dew and torn with Briers.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (443).

(7) _Oberon._

Every elf and fairy sprite Hop as light as bird from Brier.

_Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (400).

(8) _Adriana._

If aught possess thee from me, it is dross, Usurping Ivy, Brier, or idle Moss.

_Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (179).

(9) _Plantagenet._

From off this Brier pluck a white Rose with me.

_1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (30).

(10) _Rosalind._

O! how full of Briers is this working-day world!

_As You Like It_, act i, sc. 3 (12).

(11) _Helena._

The time will bring on summer, When Briers shall have leaves as well as Thorns, And be as sweet as sharp.

_All's Well_, act iv, sc. 4 (32).

(12) _Polyxenes._

I'll have thy beauty scratched with Briers.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (436).

(13) _Timon._

The Oaks bear mast, the Briers scarlet hips.

_Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (422).

(14) _Coriola.n.u.s._

Scratches with Briers, Scars to move laughter only.

_Coriola.n.u.s_, act iii, sc. 3 (51).

(15) _Quintus._

What subtle hole is this, Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing Briers?

_t.i.tus Andronicus_, act iii, sc. 3 (198).

In Shakespeare's time the "Brier" was not restricted to the Sweet Briar, as it usually is now; but it meant any sort of wild Rose, and even it would seem from No. 9 that it was applied to the cultivated Rose, for there the scene is laid in the Temple Gardens. In some of the pa.s.sages it probably does not allude to any Rose, but simply to any wild th.o.r.n.y plant. That this was its common use then, we know from many examples. In "Le Morte Arthur," the Earl of Ascolot's daughter is described--

"Hyr Rode was rede as blossom or Brere Or floure that springith in the felde" (179).

And in "A Pleasant New Court Song," in the Roxburghe Ballads--

"I stept me close aside Under a Hawthorn Bryer."

It bears the same meaning in our Bibles, where "Thorns," "Brambles," and "Briers," stand for any th.o.r.n.y and useless plant, the soil of Palestine being especially productive of th.o.r.n.y plants of many kinds. Wickliffe's translation of Matthew vii. 16, is--"Whether men gaderen grapis of thornes; or figis of Breris?" and Tyndale's translation is much the same--"Do men gaddre grapes of thornes, or figges of Bryeres?"[41:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[41:1] "Brere--Carduus, tribulus, vepres, veprecula."--_Catholicon Anglic.u.m._

BROOM.

(1) _Iris._