The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 55

(3)

The Lily I condemned for thy hand, And buds of Marjoram had stolen thy hair.

_Sonnet_ xcix.

(4) _Clown._

Indeed, sir, she was the sweet Marjoram of the Salad, or rather the Herb-of-grace.

_All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (17).

In Shakespeare's time several species of Marjoram were grown, especially the Common Marjoram (_Origanum vulgare_), a British plant, the Sweet Marjoram (_O. Marjorana_), a plant of the South of Europe, from which the English name comes,[159:1] and the Winter Marjoram (_O.

Horacleotic.u.m_). They were all favourite pot herbs, so that Lyte calls the common one "a delicate and tender herb," "a n.o.ble and odoriferous plant;" but, like so many of the old herbs, they have now fallen into disrepute. The comparison of a man's hair to the buds of Marjoram is not very intelligible, but probably it was a way of saying that the hair was golden.

FOOTNOTES:

[159:1] See "Catholicon Anglic.u.m," s.v. Marioron and note.

MARYBUDS, _see_ MARIGOLD.

MAST.

_Timon._

The Oaks bear Mast, the Briers scarlet hips.

_Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (174).

We still call the fruit of beech, beech-masts, but do not apply the name to the acorn. It originally meant food used for fatting, especially for fatting swine. See note in "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 329, giving several instances of this use, and Strattmann, s.v. Maest.

MEDLAR.

(1) _Apemantus._

There's a Medlar for thee, eat it.

_Timon._

On what I hate I feed not.

_Apemantus._

Dost hate a Medlar?

_Timon._

Ay, though it looks like thee.

_Apemantus._

An thou hadst hated Meddlers sooner, thou shouldst have loved thyself better now.

_Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (305).

(2) _Lucio._

They would have married me to the rotten Medlar.

_Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (183).

(3) _Touchstone._

Truly the tree yields bad fruit.

_Rosalind._

I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a Medlar; then it will be the earliest fruit in the country, for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the Medlar.

_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (122).

(4) _Mercutio._

Now will he sit under a Medlar tree.

And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit As maids call Medlars when they laugh alone.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 1 (80).[160:1]

The Medlar is an European tree, but not a native of England; it has, however, been so long introduced as to be now completely naturalized, and is admitted into the English flora. It is mentioned in the early vocabularies, and Chaucer gives it a very prominent place in his description of a beautiful garden--

"I was aware of the fairest Medler tree That ever yet in alle my life I sie, As ful of blossomes as it might be; Therein a goldfinch leaping pretile Fro' bough to bough, and as him list, he eet Here and there of buddes and floweres sweet."