The Old English Herbals Part 14

[111] _Ibid._, p. 128.

[112] _Ibid._, p. 74.

[113] _Ibid._, p. 54.

[114] _Ibid._, p. 1016.

[115] _Ibid._, p. 63.

[116] _Ibid._, p. 95.

[117] _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_, pp. 135, 191, 210, 233, 275, 408, 492, 613, 652, 693, 700, 790, 1075.

[118] _Ibid._, p. 559.

[119] _Ibid._, p. 700.

[120] _Ibid._, p. 1075.

[121] _Ibid._, p. 210.

[122] _Ibid._, pp. 888 and 913.

[123] _Ibid._, p. 144.

CHAPTER VII

THE LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS

"Come into the fields then, and as you come along the streets, cast your eyes upon the weeds as you call them that grow by the walls and under the hedge-sides."--W. COLES, _The Art of Simpling_, 1656.

The later seventeenth-century herbals are marked by a return to the belief in the influence upon herbs of the heavenly bodies, but it is a travesty rather than a reflection of the ancient astrological lore.

The most notable exponent of this debased lore was the infamous Nicholas Culpeper, in whom, nevertheless, the poor people in the East End seem to have had a boundless faith. It is impossible to look at the portrait of that light-hearted rogue without realising that there must have been something extraordinarily attractive about the man who was the last to set up publicly as an astrologer and herb doctor. He was the son of a clergyman who had a living somewhere in Surrey. After a brief time at Cambridge he was apprenticed to an apothecary near St.

Helen's, Bishopsgate, and shortly afterwards set up for himself in Red Lion Street, Spitalfields, as an astrologer and herbalist. Culpeper was a staunch Roundhead and fought in at least one battle. All through the war, however, he continued his practice and he acquired a great popularity in the East End of London. In 1649 he issued his _Physical Directory_, which was a translation of the _London Dispensatory_. This drew down on him the fury of the College of Physicians, and the book was virulently attacked in a broadside issued in 1652, ent.i.tled "A farm in Spittlefields where all the knick-knacks of astrology are exposed to open sale." By this time his works were enjoying an enormous sale. No fewer than five editions of his _English Physician Enlarged_ appeared before 1698, and it was reissued even as late as 1802 and again in 1809. There is a vivid description of Culpeper in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for May 1797:--

"He was of a middle stature, of a spare lean body, dark complexion, brown hair, rather long visage, piercing quick eyes, very active and nimble. Though of an excellent wit, sharp fancy, admirable conception and of an active understanding, yet occasionally inclined to melancholy, which was such an extraordinary enemy to him that sometimes wanting company he would seem like a dead man. He was very eloquent, a good orator though very conceited and full of jest, which was so inseparable to him that in his most serious writings, he would mingle matters of levity and extremely please himself in so doing. Though his family possessed considerable property it appears he was exceedingly restricted in his pecuniary concerns, which probably was the cause of his early leaving the University, as he observes; though his mother lived till he was twenty-three years of age and left him well provided, yet he was cheated or nearly spent all his fortune in the outset of life. Another author observes it is most true that he was always subject to a consumption of the purse, notwithstanding the many ways he had to a.s.sist him. His patrimony was also chiefly consumed at the University.

Indeed he had a spirit so far above the vulgar, that he condemned and scorned riches any other way than to make them serviceable to him. He was as free of his purse as of his pen.... He acknowledged he had many pretended friends, but he was rather prejudiced than bettered by them, for, when he most stood in need of their friends.h.i.+p and a.s.sistance they most of all deceived him."

Culpeper wrote a number of medical works which do not concern us here, but his name will always be a.s.sociated with his Herbal. His reason for having written it he affirms to be that, of the operation of herbs by the stars he found few authors had written, "and those as full of nonsense and contradiction as an Egg is full of meat. This not being pleasing and less profitable to me, I consulted with my two brothers Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience and took a voyage to visit my Mother Nature, by whose advice together with the help of Dr. Diligence I at last obtained my desire and, being warned by Mr. Honesty (a stranger in our days) to publish it to the world, I have done it." It is impossible to read any part of this absurd book without a vision arising of the old rogue standing at the street corner and not only collecting but holding an interested crowd of the common folk by the sort of arguments which they not only understand but appreciate. In his preface he warns his readers against the false copies of his book "that are printed of that letter the small Bibles are printed with ...

there being twenty or thirty gross errors in every sheet." He is withering in his criticism of those who quote old authors as authorities. "They say Reason makes a man differ from a beast; if that be true, pray what are they that instead of Reason for their judgment quote old authors?" In his preface, as throughout his book, he affirms his belief in the connection between herbs and stars. Diseases, he a.s.serts, vary according to the motions of the stars, "and he that would know the reason for the operation of the herbs must look up as high as the stars. It is essential to find out what planet has caused the disease and then by what planet the afflicted part of the body is governed. In the treatment of the disease the influence of the planet must be opposed by herbs under the influence of another planet, or in some cases by sympathy, that is each planet curing its own disease."

Elsewhere he directs that plants must always be picked according to the planet that is in the ascendant. Culpeper a.s.serts that herbs should be dried in the sun,[124] his ingenious reasoning being this:--"For if the sun draw away the virtues of the herb it must needs do the like by hay, which the experience of every farmer will explode for a notable piece of nonsense." He also pours scorn on those who say that the sap does not rise in the winter. Here his argument is even more remarkable, and yet one cannot help realising how effectual it would be with the cla.s.s of folk with whom he dealt. "If the sap fall into the roots in the fall of the leaf and lies there all the winter then must the root grow all the winter, but the root grows not at all in the winter as experience teaches, but only in the summer. If you set an apple kernel in the spring you shall find the root to grow to a pretty bigness in the summer and be not a whit bigger next spring.

What doth the sap do in the root all the winter that while? Pick straws? 'Tis as rotten as a rotten post." He gives as his own version of what happens to the sap that "when the sun declines from the tropic of cancer, the sap begins to congeal both in root and branch. When he touches the tropic of capricorn and ascends to uswards it begins to wax thin again." One cannot help suspecting that Culpeper knew perfectly well what nonsense he was talking, but that he also realised how remunerative such nonsense was and how much his customers were impressed by it. In his dissertation on wormwood one feels that he was writing with his tongue in his cheek, especially in the conclusion, which is as follows:--

"He that reads this and understands what he reads hath a jewel of more worth than a diamond. He that understands it not is as little fit to give physick. There lies a key in these words, which will unlock (if it be turned by a wise hand) the cabinet of physic. I have delivered it as plain as I durst ... thus shall I live when I am dead. And thus I leave it to the world, not caring a farthing whether they like it or dislike it. The grave equals all men and therefore shall equal me with all princes.... Then the ill tongue of a prating fellow or one that hath more tongue than wit or more proud than honest shall never trouble me. Wisdom is justified of her children. And so much for wormwood."

[Ill.u.s.tration: NICHOLAS CULPEPER FROM "THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED"]

Less popular than Culpeper's numerous writings, but far more attractive and altogether of a different stamp, are Coles's two books, _Adam in Eden_ and _The Art of Simpling_. The t.i.tle of the latter runs thus:--

"The Art of Simpling. An Introduction to the Knowledge and Gathering of Plants. Wherein the Definitions, Divisions, Places, Descriptions, Differences, Names, Vertues, Times of flouris.h.i.+ng and gathering, Uses, Temperatures, Signatures and Appropriations of Plants are methodically laid down.

London. Printed by J. G. for Nath. Brook at the Angell in Cornhill. 1656."

The preface is quaint and so typical of the spirit of the later seventeenth-century herbals that I transcribe a good deal of it:--

"What a rare happiness was it for Matthiolus that famous Simpler, to live in those days wherein (as he himself reports) so many Emperors, Kings, Arch-Dukes, Cardinalls and Bishops did favour his Endeavour, and plentifully reward him! Whereas in our times the Art of Simpling is so farre from being rewarded, that it is grown contemptible and he is accounted a simple fellow, that pretends to have any skill therein. Truly it is to be lamented that the men of these times which pretend to so much Light should goe the way to put out their owne Eyes, by trampling upon that which should preserve them, to the great discouragement of those that have any mind to bend their Studies this way.

Notwithstanding, for the good of my Native Countrey, which everyone is obliged to serve upon all occasions of advantage and in pitty to such Mistakers, I have painfully endeavoured plainly to demonstrate the way of attaining this necessary Art, and the usefulnesse of it, in hopes that this Embryo thrown thus into the wide world, will fall into the Lap of some worthy persons that will cherish it, though I knew not any to whose protection I might commend it. However I have adventured it abroad, and to expresse my reall affection to the publick good have in it communicated such Notions, as I have gathered, either from the reading of Severall Authors, or by conferring sometimes with Scholars, and sometimes with Countrey people; To which I have added some Observations of mine Owne, never before published: Most of which I am confident are true, and if there be any that are not so, yet they are pleasant."

There is something very attractive in the last inconsequent remark!

Coles deals mercilessly with old Culpeper. "Culpeper," he says, "(a man now dead and therefore I shall speak of him as modestly as I can, for were he alive I should be more straight with him), was a man very ignorant in the forme of Simples. Many Books indeed he hath tumbled over, and transcribed as much out of them as he thought would serve his turne (though many times he were therein mistaken) but added very little of his own." He even comments on the fact that either Culpeper or his Printer cannot spell aright--"sure he or the Printer had not learned to spell."

The Doctrine of Signatures he accepts unquestioningly. "Though Sin and Sathan have plunged mankinde into an Ocean of Infirmities Yet the mercy of G.o.d which is over all his Workes Maketh Gra.s.se to grow upon the Mountaines and Herbs for the use of Men and hath not onely stemped upon them (as upon every man) a distinct forme, but also given them particular signatures, whereby a Man may read even in legible Characters the Use of them. Heart Trefoyle is so called not onely because the Leafe is Triangular like the Heart of a Man, but also because each leafe contains the perfect Icon of an Heart and that in its proper colour viz a flesh colour. Hounds tongue hath a forme not much different from its name which will tye the Tongues of Hounds so that they shall not barke at you: if it be laid under the bottomes of ones feet. Wallnuts bear the whole Signature of the Head, the outwardmost green barke answerable to the thick skin whereunto the head is covered, and a salt made of it is singularly good for wounds in that part, as the Kernell is good for the braines, which it resembles being environed with a sh.e.l.l which imitates the Scull, and then it is wrapped up againe in a silken covering somewhat representing the _Pia Mater_."

Of those plants that have no signatures he warns the reader not to conclude hastily that therefore they have no use. "We must cast ourselves," he says, "with great Courage and Industry (as some before us have done) upon attempting the vertues of them, which are yet undiscovered. For man was not brought into the world to live like an idle Loyterer or Truant, but to exercise his minde in those things, which are therefore in some measure obscure and intricate, yet not so much as otherwise they would have been, it being easier to adde than invent at first." He then gives his own curious but navely interesting theory of plants "commonly accounted useless and unprofitable." "They would not be without their use," he argues, "if they were good for nothing else but to exercise the Industry of Man to weed them out who, had he nothing to struggle with, the fire of his Spirit would be halfe extinguished in the Flesh." After pointing out that weeding them out is in itself excellent exercise, he proceeds:--"But further why may not poysonous plants draw to them all the maligne juice and nourishment that the other may be more pure and refined, as well as Toads and other poysonous Serpents licke the venome from the Earth?... So have I seen some people when they have burned their fingers to goe and burne them again to fetch out the fire. And why may not one poyson fetch out another as well as fire fetch out fire?" "For should all things be known at once," he wisely concludes, "Posterity would have nothing left wherewith to gratifie themselves in their owne discoveries, which is a great encouragement to active and quick Wits, to make them enquire into those things which are hid from the eyes of those which are dull and stupid."

Coles's _Art of Simpling_ is the only herbal which devotes a chapter to herbs useful for animals--"Plants as have operation upon the bodies of Bruit Beasts." This chapter is full of curious folk lore. He gives the old beliefs that a toad poisoned by a spider will cure itself with a plantain leaf; that weasels when about to encounter a serpent eat rue; that an a.s.s when it feels melancholy eats asplenium; that wild goats wounded by arrows cure themselves with dittany; that the swallow uses celandine ("I would have this purposely planted for them," he adds); that linnet and goldfinch (and have any birds brighter eyes?) constantly repair their own and their young one's eyesight with eyebright; that if loosestrife is thrown between two oxen when they are fighting they will part presently, and being tied about their necks it will keep them from fighting; that c.o.c.ks which have been fed on garlick are "most stout to fight and so are Horses"; that the serpent so hates the ash tree "that she will not come nigh the shadow of it, but she delights in Fennel very much, which she eates to cleer her eyesight;" that, if a garden is infested with moles, garlic or leeks will make them "leap out of the ground presently." Perhaps the most remarkable effects of herbs are the two following. "Adders tongue put into the left eare of any Horse will make him fall downe as if he were dead, and when it is taken out againe, he becomes more lively than he was before." And "if a.s.ses chance to feed much upon Hemlock, they will fall so fast asleep that they will seeme to be dead, in so much that some thinking them to be dead indeed have flayed off their skins, yet after the Hemlock had done operating they have stirred and wakened out of their sleep, to the griefe and amazement of the owners."

There is one chapter--"Of plants used in and against Witchcraft"--in which, amongst other things, we learn that the ointment that witches use is made of the fat of children, dug up from their graves, and mixed with the juice of smallage, wolfsbane and cinquefoil and fine wheat flour; that mistletoe, angelica, etc. were regarded as being of such sovereign power against witches that they were worn round the neck as amulets. Also, that in order to prevent witches from entering their houses the common people used to gather elder leaves on the last day of April and affix them to their doors and windows. "I doe not desire any to pin their Faiths upon these reports," says Coles, "but only let them know there are such which they may believe as they please." "However," he concludes, "there is no question but very wonderful effects may be wrought by the Vertues which are enveloped within the compa.s.se of the green mantles wherewith many Plants are adorned."

Coles, nevertheless, treats with scorn, and by arguments peculiarly his own, the old belief in the connection between the stars and herbs.

"It [the study of herbs] is a subject as antient as the Creation, yea more antient than the Sunne or the Moon, or Starres, they being created on the fourth day whereas Plants were the third. Thus did G.o.d even at first confute the folly of those Astrologers who goe about to maintaine that all vegetables in their growth are enslaved to a necessary and unavoidable dependence on the influences of the starres; whereas Plants were even when Planets were not." In another pa.s.sage, however, he writes, "Though I admit not of Master Culpeper's Astrologicall way of every Planets Dominion over Plants, yet I conceive that the Sunne and Moon have generall influence upon them, the one for Heat the other for Moisture; wherein the being of Plants consists."

The most attractive parts of the _Art of Simpling_ are the chapters devoted to the "Joys of Gardening." Coles tells us that "A house, though otherwise beautifull, if it hath no garden is more like a prison than a house." Of what he has to say about gardens and the happiness to be found in gardening I quote much because it is all so pleasant.

"That there is no place more pleasant [than a garden] may appear from G.o.d himselfe, who after he had made Man, planted the Garden of Eden, and put him therein, that he might contemplate the many wonderful Ornaments wherewith Omnipotency had bedecked his Mother Earth.... As for recreation, if a man be wearied with over-much study (for study is a weariness to the Flesh as Solomon by experience can tell you) there is no better place in the world to recreate himself than a Garden, there being no sence but may be delighted therein. If his sight be obfuscated and dull, as it may easily be, with continuall poring, there is no better way to relieve it, than to view the pleasant greennesse of Herbes, which is the way that Painters use, when they have almost spent their sight by their most earnest contemplation of brighter objects: neither doe they onely feed the Eyes but comfort the wearied Braine with fragrant smells. The Eares also (which are called the Daughters of Musick, because they delight therein) have their recreation by the pleasant noise of the warbling notes, which the chaunting birds accent forth from amongst the murmuring Leaves...."

"Of the profits" [of a garden] he says, "First for household occasions, for there is not a day pa.s.seth over our heads but we have of one thing or other that groweth within their circ.u.mference. We cannot make so much as a little good Pottage without Herbes, which give an admirable relish and make them wholsome for our Bodies....

Besides this inestimable Profit there is another not much inferior to it, and that is the wholsome exercise a man may use in it.... If Gentlemen which have little else to doe, would be ruled by me, I would advise them to spend their spare time in their gardens, either in digging, setting, weeding or the like, then which there is no better way in the world to preserve health. If a man want an Appet.i.te to his Victuals the Smell of the Earth new turned up by digging with a spade will procure it,[125] and if he be inclined to a Consumption it will recover him.

"Gentlewomen if the ground be not too wet may doe themselves much good by kneeling upon a Cus.h.i.+on and weeding. And thus both s.e.xes might divert themselves from Idlenesse and evill company, which oftentimes prove the ruine of many ingenious people. But perhaps they may think it a disparagement to the condition they are in; truly none at all if it were but put in practise. For we see that those fas.h.i.+ons which sometimes seem ridiculous if once taken up by the gentry cease to be so." He quotes the Emperor Diocletian, who "left for a season the whole Government of the Empire and forsaking the Court betook himself to a meane House with a Garden adjoyning, wherein with his owne hands, he both sowed set and weeded the Herbes of his Garden which kinde of life so pleased him, that he was hardly intreated to resume the Government of the Empire." "By this time," he concludes, "I hope you will think it no dishonour to follow the steps of our grandsire Adam, who is commonly pictured with a Spade in his hand, to march through the Quarters of your Garden with the like Instrument, and there to rectify all the disorders thereof, to procure as much as in you lyes the recovery of the languis.h.i.+ng Art of Simpling, which did it but appeare in lively colours, I am almost perswaded it would so affect you that you would be much taken with it. There is no better way to understand the benefit of it, than by being acquainted with Herb.a.l.l.s and Herbarists and by putting this Gentle and ingenious Exercise in practise, that so this part of knowledge as well as others, may receive that esteem and advancement that is due to it, to the banishment of Barbarisme and Ignorance which begin again to prevaile against it."

The real descendants, so to speak, of the herbal are the quaint old still-room books, many of which survive not only in museums and public libraries, but also in country houses. These still-room books, which are a modest branch of literature in themselves, are more nearly akin to herbals than to cookery books, with which they are popularly a.s.sociated. For they are full of the old herb lore and of the uses of herbs in homely medicines. It must be remembered that even as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries every woman was supposed to have some knowledge of both the preparation and the medicinal use of herbs and simples. When the herbal proper ceased and the first books on botany began to make their appearance the old herb lore did not fall into disuse, and the popularity of the still-room books in which it was preserved may be gathered from the fact that one of the first of these to be printed--_A Choice Manual of rare and select Secrets in Physick & Chirurgerie Collected and practised by the Countesse of Kent[126] (late dec'd)_--went through nineteen editions. There are some old books which merely inspire awe, for one feels that they have always lived in dignified seclusion on library shelves and have been handled only by learned scholars. But there are others whose leaves are so be-thumbed and torn that from constant a.s.sociation with human beings they seem to have become almost human themselves. Of this type are these old still-room books. They were an integral part of daily life and their worn pages bear mute witness to the fact.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRONTISPIECE OF "THE CURIOUS DESTILLATORY," BY THOMAS s.h.i.+RLEY, M.D., PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY (1677)]

One of the most interesting is the Fairfax still-room book.[127] Its first owner was probably Mary Cholmeley, born during the closing years of Elizabeth's reign, and married in 1626 to the Rev. the Hon.

Henry Fairfax (uncle of the great Parliamentarian General--Lord Fairfax).[128] In common with the majority of MS. still-room books, the Fairfax volume contains much that has no immediate connection with a still-room, but is full of human interest. It is a curious medley of culinary recipes, homely cures, housewifely arts such as bleaching, dyeing, brewing and preserving, to say nothing of hastily scribbled little notes regarding lost linen (including no fewer than "xxiii handkerchares!") and the number of fowls, etc., in the poultry-yard.

This last entry, which runs all down one side of a page, is as follows: "I Kapon, XVI Torkies, XVIII dowkes, IIII henes, II c.o.kes, X chekins, X giese, IV sowes."

But the most charming entry of all is: "A note of Mistress Barbara her lessons on ye virginalle which she hath learned and can play them,"

followed by a list of songs, the majority of which have the entry "Mr.

Bird" beside them. William Bird was organist to Queen Elizabeth, and he presumably was "Mistress Barbara's" music-master. She apparently also had lessons from Dr. Bull, then at the height of his fame, for his name appears in connection with some of the items. Amongst the songs we find "My trew Love is to ye grene Wood gon," and there are quite a number of dances--pavanes and courantes--which she played. One feels very sure that "Mistress Barbara" was a fascinating person, but she could not have been more lovable than her sister Mary, who married Henry Fairfax. A love-letter, written in Charles I.'s reign, is doubtless quite out of place in a book on old herbals, but I cannot refrain from quoting the following, written by Mary to her husband about six years after their marriage, because it very clearly reveals the character of one of the many types of women who wrote these still-room books.

"MY EVER DEAREST LOVE,