Snake Head Fritillary: Symbolic language of flowers - Persecution
Michael Caines – Times Literary
Supplement May 19 2015
…Yet I admit I'm taken with one
detail, the presence of a certain flower in "Shakespeare"'s hand:
it's a snake-head fritillary, apparently, not seen in the wild in Britain until
1796, but known to Gerard in 1597: "They are greately esteemed for the
beautifieng of our gardens and the bosomes of the beautifull", he wrote.
To Shakespeare, they mattered, too: in Venus and Adonis, published a few years
before The Herball, he has the blood of that "rose-cheek'd" victim of
Venus fall to the ground and give rise to a "purple flower . . . chequer'd
with white".
That would seem to be a
deliberate diversion from Ovidian tradition, in which it is the anemone that
springs from Adonis's blood – a slight adjustment, perhaps, since anemones can
be purple, too. But variegated, "chequer'd with white"? As Miriam
Jackson recently argued in Barbarous
Antiquity, here is one way in which Shakespeare perhaps shows he
wishes to transform the myth into "something entirely new" – by
turning Adonis into an "exotic bulb, whether a fritillary or a variegated
tulip", he wishes to "generate literary currency" much as exotic
new bulbs did in the same period.
(bulb - self-generating)
*****************************
Language of Flowers – Snake Head
Frittilary - persecution
Since brass, nor stone, nor
earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O! how shall summer's honey
breath hold out,
Against the wrackful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O! none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
Against the wrackful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O! none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
****************************
persecute
/ˈpɜːsɪˌkjuːt/
verb (transitive)
1.
to oppress, harass, or maltreat,
esp because of race, religion, etc
2.
to bother persistently
Word Origin
C15: from Old French persecuter,
back formation from persecuteur, from Late Latin persecūtor pursuer, from
persequī to take vengeance upon
****************************
...Only two types of flower were described as “checkered” or
speckled in early modern English botanical writing, and both were Turkish bulbs.
As Burrow notes, a purple or “snake’s head” fritillary is the most likely
candidate for a checkered flower, its drooping petals most closely resembling a
checkerboard of dark and pale violet. This peculiarly marked flower has an
equally peculiar and unfixed collection of early names. Just as botanists began
hybridizing flowers in this period (like Perdita’s “pied…gillyvor”), so did
they hybridize the names of newly imported flowers. Early modern botanists
create composites out of two names in naming the fritillary. Henry Lyte’s
translation of Dodoens calls the fritillary a “lily-narcissus,” and Gerard and
John Parkinson both call it a “checquered daffodil” as well as labelling it the
“Turkie or Ginny-Hen Floure” because of its speckled appearance. Gerard
describes the blossom as if it were a painting itself:
Six small leaves checquered most strangely: wherein Nature,
or rather the Creator of all things, hath kept a very wonderful order,
surpassing (as in all other things) the curiousest painting that Art can set
downe. One square is of a greenish yellow colour, the other purple, keeping the
same order as well on the backside of the floure, as on the inside, although
they are blackish in one square, and of a Violet colour in an other; insomuch
that every leafe seemeth to be the feather of a Ginny hen, whereof it tooke his
name.
Like Shakespeare’s Adonis flower, this is a “purple” flower
whose petals bear a strange checkerboard pattern…
(snip)
The purple fritillary is like a work of craftsmanship or a
decorative object, “the curiousest painting that Art can set downe,” in other
words a curiousity in nature’s cabinet, one that upsets the distinction between
art and nature. As late sixteenth-century bulb propagation itself involved
playing around with nature – producing more and more vibrant, painterly
displays from tulips through “breaking” bulbs (actually introducing a virus
into the bulb, a technique first attributed to Clusius) and cross-breeding
carnations or gillyflowers – even naturally occurring patterns on bulbs
themselves might have seemed like a strange mixture of natural and artificial.
The tromp l’oeil Arabian courser’s formal perfection makes it more like an
idealized painting than a living horse, and it makes sense that Shakespeare
would choose a natural flower that looks like a painting for Adonis’s
metamorphosis: the fritillary appears artificial in its natural state, just
like Adonis, who is “the curious workmanship of nature”.
**********************************
Author: Dodoens,
Rembert, 1517-1585.
Title: A nievve herball, or historie of plantes wherin is contayned the vvhole discourse and perfect description of all sortes of herbes and plantes: their diuers [and] sundry kindes: their straunge figures, fashions, and shapes: their names, natures, operations, and vertues: and that not onely of those whiche are here growyng in this our countrie of Englande, but of all others also of forrayne realmes, commonly vsed in physicke. First set foorth in the Doutche or Almaigne tongue, by that learned D. Rembert Dodoens, physition to the Emperour: and nowe first translated out of French into English, by Henry Lyte Esquyer.
Date: 1578
Title: A nievve herball, or historie of plantes wherin is contayned the vvhole discourse and perfect description of all sortes of herbes and plantes: their diuers [and] sundry kindes: their straunge figures, fashions, and shapes: their names, natures, operations, and vertues: and that not onely of those whiche are here growyng in this our countrie of Englande, but of all others also of forrayne realmes, commonly vsed in physicke. First set foorth in the Doutche or Almaigne tongue, by that learned D. Rembert Dodoens, physition to the Emperour: and nowe first translated out of French into English, by Henry Lyte Esquyer.
Date: 1578
Of Tulpia / or
Tulipa / Lilionarcissus sanguineus poene. Chap. lij.
¶ The Kyndes.
There be two sortes of Tulpia, a great and a small.
{flower} The
Description.
[ 1] THE great Tulpia, or rather Tulipa, hath two
or three leaues, which are long, thicke, and broade, and somewhat redde at
their first sprin|ging vp, but after when they waxe elder they are of a
whitishe greene colour, with them riseth vp a stalke, whereby the sayde leaues
are somewhat aduaunced. It hath at the top a faire large & pleasant flower,
of co|lour very diuers and variable, sometimes yellowe, sometimes white, or of
a bright purple, sometimes of a light red, and sometimes of a very deepe red:
and purised about the edges or brimmes with yellowe, white, or red, but yellow
in the middle and bottome of the flower, and oftentimes blacke or speckled with
blacke spottes, or mixt with white and red: most commonly without smell or
sauour. The Bulbus roote is lyke the roote of Narcissus.
[ 2] The lesse Tulpia is smaller, and hath narrower leaues,
and a shorter stem, the flower also is smaller, and more openly disclosed, or
spread abroade. The Bulbus roote is also smaller, and may be diuided and parted
in twayne or
more: when the stemme groweth vp, that
which springeth in the neather part of the stalke is lyke to the stem of the
great Tulpia, growing next the roote.
[Figure:
Tulpia maior. Great Tulpia.
[Figure:
Tulpia minor. Smal Tulpia.
[ 3] There is also placed with the Tulpia, a certayne
strange flower, whiche is called of some Fritillaria, whose
tender stalkes are of a spanne long, with fiue or sixe litle narrowe leaues
growing at the same. There groweth also a flower at the toppe of the stalke
with sixe leaues, like to the leaues of Tulpia, but ben|ding or hanging
downewardes, of a purple violet colour, garnished and trim|med with certayne
whitishe violet markes or SPOTTES on the outside, and with blacke spottes in the
inside. It hath also a bulbus or rounde roote.
{flower} The Place.
[ 1] The greater Tulpia is brought from Grece, and the
Countrie about Con|stantinople.
[ 2] The lesse is founde about Mounte-pelier in Fraunce.
{flower} The Tyme.
They flower bytimes with the Narcissis, or a litle after.
[leaf motif] The
Names.
[ 1] The greater is called both Tulpia, and Tulpian, and
of some Tulipa, whiche is a Turkie name or worde, we may call
it Lillynarcissus.
[ 2] The smal is called Tulipa, or Tulpia
minor, that is the small Tulpian: and it is neither Hermodactylus, nor Pseudohermodactylus.
[ 3] The third is called of the Grekes and Latines, Flos
Meleagris, and Meleagris flos, as a difference from a
kinde of birde called also Meleagris, whose feathers be
speckled lyke vnto these flowers, but not with Violet speckes, but with white
& blacke spots, lyke to the feathers of the Turkie or Ginny hen, which is
called Meleagris auis: some do also cal this flower Fritillaria.
{flower} The Nature and Vertues.
The nature and vertues of these flowers, are yet vnknowen,
neuerthelesse they are pleasant and beautifull to looke on.
[Figure:
Meleagris
Flos, Fritillaria
quorundam.
*****************************************
Author: Gerard,
John, 1545-1612.
Title: The herball or Generall historie of plantes. Gathered by Iohn Gerarde of London Master in Chirurgerie very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Iohnson citizen and apothecarye of London
Date: 1633
Title: The herball or Generall historie of plantes. Gathered by Iohn Gerarde of London Master in Chirurgerie very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Iohnson citizen and apothecarye of London
Date: 1633
THE FIRST BOOKE OF
THE HISTORIE OF PLANTS: Containing Grasses, Rushes, Reeds, Corne, Flags, and
Bulbous, or Onion-rooted Plants. 643Kb
CHAP. 89. Of
Turkie or Ginny-hen Floure.
[Figure:
1 [...]. Checquered
Daffodill.
2 Frittillaria
variegata. Changeable Checquered Daffodil.
¶ The Description.
1 THe Checquered
Daffodill, or Ginny-hen Floure, hath small narrow grassie leaues; a|mong which
there riseth vp a stalke three hands high, hauing at the top one or two
floures, and sometimes three, which consisteth of six small leaues checquered
most strangely: wherein Nature, or rather the Creator of all things, hath kept
a very wonderfull order, surpassing (as in all other things) the curiousest
painting that Art can set downe. One square is of a greenish yellow colour, the
other purple, keeping the same order as well on the backside of the floure, as
on the inside, although they are blackish in one square, and of a Violet colour
in an other; insomuch that euery leafe seemeth to be the feather of a Ginny
hen, whereof it tooke his name. The root is small, white, and of the bignesse
of halfe a garden beane.
2 The second kinde
of Checquered Daffodill is like vnto the former in each respect, sauing that
this hath his floure dasht ouer with a light purple, and is somewhat greater
than the other, wherein consisteth the difference.
[Figure:
†† 3 Frittillaria
Aquitanica minor flore luteo obsoleto. The lesser darke yellow Fritillarie.
] [Figure:
†† 9 Frittillaria
alba praecox. The early white Fritillarie.
]
†† There are sundry
differences and varieties of this floure, taken from the colour, largenes,
dou|blenesse, earlinesse and latenes of flouring, as also from the many or few
branches bearing floures. We will onely specifie their varieties by their
names, seeing their forme differs little from those you haue here described.
11 Fritillaria
angustifolia lutea variegata paruo flore, & altera flore majore. Narrow leaued
yellow [...] Fritillarie with small floures; and another with a
larger floure.
12 Fritillaria [...] pluribus
floribus. The least
Fritillarie with many floure Fritillaria
Hispanica vmbellifera. The
Spanish Fritillarie with the floures standing as it were in an vmbell.
¶ The Names.
The Ginny hen floure
is called of [...], Flos Melcagris: of Lobelius,
Lilio-narcissus variegata, for that it hath the floure of a Lilly, and
the root of Narcissus: it hath beene called Fritillaria, of the table or boord vpon which men
play at Chesse, which square checkers the floure doth very much resemble; some
thinking that it was named Fritillus:whereof there is
no [...]; for Marti|alis seemeth to call Fritillus,
Abacus, or the Tables whereat men play at Dice, in the fifth Booke of
his Epigrams, writing to Galla.
Iam tristis, nucibus puer relictis,
Clamoso reuocatur à magistro:
Et blando malè [...] Fritillo
Arcanamodò raptus è popina
Aedilem rogat vdus aleator. &c.
The sad Boy now his nuts cast by,
Call'd vnto Schole by Masters cry:
And the drunke Dicer now betray'd
By flattring Tables as he play'd,
Is from his secret tipling house drawne out,
Although the Officer he much besought. &c.
In English we may
call it Turky-hen or Ginny-hen Floure, and also Checquered Daffodill, and
Fritillarie, according to the Latine.
The Temperature and Vertues.
Of the facultie of
these pleasant floures there is nothing set downe in the antient or later
Wri|ter, but are greatly esteemed for the beautifying of our gardens, and the *bosoms
of the beautifull*.
Bosoms of the
Beautiful:
Venus and Adonis - Shakespeare
By this, the boy
that by her side lay kill'd
Was melted like a vapour from her sight,
And in his blood that on the ground lay spill'd,
A purple flower sprung up, chequer'd with white,
Resembling well his pale cheeks and the blood
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.
Was melted like a vapour from her sight,
And in his blood that on the ground lay spill'd,
A purple flower sprung up, chequer'd with white,
Resembling well his pale cheeks and the blood
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.
She bows her head,
the new-sprung flower to smell,
Comparing it to her Adonis' breath,
And says, within her bosom it shall dwell,
Since he himself is reft from her by death:
She crops the stalk, and in the breach appears
Green dropping sap, which she compares to tears.
Comparing it to her Adonis' breath,
And says, within her bosom it shall dwell,
Since he himself is reft from her by death:
She crops the stalk, and in the breach appears
Green dropping sap, which she compares to tears.
'Poor flower,' quoth
she, 'this was thy fathers guise--
Sweet issue of a more sweet-smelling sire--
For every little grief to wet his eyes:
To grow unto himself was his desire,
And so 'tis thine; but know, it is as good
To wither in my breast as in his blood.
Sweet issue of a more sweet-smelling sire--
For every little grief to wet his eyes:
To grow unto himself was his desire,
And so 'tis thine; but know, it is as good
To wither in my breast as in his blood.
'Here was thy
father's bed, here in my breast;
Thou art the next of blood, and 'tis thy right:
Lo, in this hollow cradle take thy rest,
My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night:
There shall not be one minute in an hour
Wherein I will not kiss my sweet love's flower.'
Thou art the next of blood, and 'tis thy right:
Lo, in this hollow cradle take thy rest,
My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night:
There shall not be one minute in an hour
Wherein I will not kiss my sweet love's flower.'
Thus weary of the
world, away she hies,
And yokes her silver doves; by whose swift aid
Their mistress mounted through the empty skies
In her light chariot quickly is convey'd;
Holding their course to Paphos, where their queen
Means to immure herself and not be seen.
And yokes her silver doves; by whose swift aid
Their mistress mounted through the empty skies
In her light chariot quickly is convey'd;
Holding their course to Paphos, where their queen
Means to immure herself and not be seen.
Author: Lovell,
Robert, 1630?-1690.
Title: Pambotanologia. Sive Enchiridion botanicum. Or A compleat herball containing the summe of what hath hitherto been published either by ancient or moderne authors both Galenicall and chymicall, touching trees, shrubs, plants, fruits, flowers, &c. In an alphabeticall order: wherein all that are not in the physick garden in Oxford are noted with asterisks. Shewing their place, time, names, kindes, temperature, vertues, use, dose, danger and antidotes. Together with an [brace] introduction to herbarisme, &c. appendix of exoticks. Universall index of plants: shewing what grow wild in England. / By Robert Lovell St. C.C. Ox.
Date: 1659
Title: Pambotanologia. Sive Enchiridion botanicum. Or A compleat herball containing the summe of what hath hitherto been published either by ancient or moderne authors both Galenicall and chymicall, touching trees, shrubs, plants, fruits, flowers, &c. In an alphabeticall order: wherein all that are not in the physick garden in Oxford are noted with asterisks. Shewing their place, time, names, kindes, temperature, vertues, use, dose, danger and antidotes. Together with an [brace] introduction to herbarisme, &c. appendix of exoticks. Universall index of plants: shewing what grow wild in England. / By Robert Lovell St. C.C. Ox.
Date: 1659
Fritillarie. Fritillaria.
- P. It
groweth in gardens and meadowes.
- T. It
flowreth in March and Aprill.
- N. Lilium
variegatum. Flos meleagris Dod.
Fritillarie. Ger. J. K. as the lesser darke yellow, and
early white, with the checquered, and CHANGEABLE checquered daffodill. T. V.
serve onely to adorne and beautify the garden, and are not yet used in
medicine. Bauh. The smell of the black Fritillarie is
unpleasant and stinking, and neere unto that of stinking Glad|don. The white is
not yet written of, as to any physicall use: so Clusius, and Bauhinus.
Author: Parkinson,
John, 1567-1650.
Title: Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris. or A garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre will permitt to be noursed vp with a kitchen garden of all manner of herbes, rootes, & fruites, for meate or sause vsed with vs, and an orchard of all sorte of fruitbearing trees and shrubbes fit for our land together with the right orderinge planting & preseruing of them and their vses & vertues collected by Iohn Parkinson apothecary of London 1629.
Date: 1629
Title: Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris. or A garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre will permitt to be noursed vp with a kitchen garden of all manner of herbes, rootes, & fruites, for meate or sause vsed with vs, and an orchard of all sorte of fruitbearing trees and shrubbes fit for our land together with the right orderinge planting & preseruing of them and their vses & vertues collected by Iohn Parkinson apothecary of London 1629.
Date: 1629
Paradisi in sole
paradisus terrestris. or A garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our
English ayre will permitt to be noursed vp 2181Kb
THE ORDERING OF
THE GARDEN OF PLEASVRE. 121Kb
CHAP. IV. The
nature and names of diners Out-landish flowers, that for their pride, beauty,
and earlinesse, are to be planted in Gardens of pleasure for delight. 15Kb
CHAP.
IV. The nature and names of diners OUT-LANDISH FLOWERS, that for their
pride, beauty, and earlinesse, are to be planted in Gardens of pleasure for
delight.
HAuing thus
formed out a Garden, and diuided it into his fit and due proporti|on, with all
the gracefull knots, arbours, walkes, &c. likewise what is fit to keepe it
in the same comely order, is appointed vnto it, both for the borders of the
squares, and for the knots and beds themselues; let vs now come and furnish the
inward parts, and beds with those fine flowers that (being strangers vnto vs,
and giuing the beauty and brauery of their colours so early before many of our
owne bred flowers, the more to entice vs to their delight) are most beseeming
it: and namely, with Daffo|dils, FRITILLARIAS, Iacinthes, Saffron-flowers,
Lillies, Flowerdeluces, Tulipas, Anemo|nes, French Cowslips, or Beares eares,
and a number of such other flowers, very beau|tifull, delightfull, and
pleasant, hereafter described at full, whereof although many haue little sweete
sent to commend them, yet their earlinesse and exceeding great beau|tie and
varietie doth so farre counteruaile that defect (and yet I must tell you with
all, that there is among the many sorts of them some, and that not a few, that
doe excell in sweetnesse, being so strong and heady, that they rather offend by
too much than by too little sent, and some againe are of so milde and moderate
temper, that they scarce come short of your most delicate and dantiest flowers)
that they are almost in all places with all persons, especially with the better
sort of the Gentry of the Land, as greatly desired and accepted as any other the
most choisest, and the rather, for that the most part of these Out-landish
flowers, do shew forth their beauty and colours so early in the yeare, that
they seeme to make a Garden of delight euen in the Winter time, and doe so giue
their flowers one after another, that all their brauery is not fully spent,
vntil that Gilliflowers, the pride of our English Gardens, do shew themselues:
So that whosoeuer would haue of euery sort of these flowers, may haue for euery
moneth seuerall colours and varieties, euen from Christmas vntill Midsommer, or
after; and then, after some little respite, vn|till Christmas againe, and that
in some plenty, with great content and without forcing; so that euery man may
haue them in euery place, if they will take any care of them. And because there
bee many Gentlewomen and others, that would gladly haue some fine flowers to
furnish their Gardens, but know not what the names of those things are that
they desire, nor what are the times of their flowring, nor the skill and
knowledge of their right ordering, planting, displanting, transplanting, and
replanting; I haue here for their sakes set downe the nature, names, times, and
manner of ordering in a briefe manner, referring the more ample declaration of
them to the worke following. And first of their names and natures: Of Daffodils
there are almost an hundred sorts, as they are seuerally described hereafter,
euery one to be distinguished from other, both in their times, formes, and
colours, some being eyther white, or yellow, or mixt, or else being small or
great, single or double, and some hauing but one flower vpon a stalke, others
many, whereof many are so exceeding sweete, that a very few are sufficient to
perfume a whole chamber, and besides, many of them be so faire and double, eyther
one vpon a stalke, or many vpon a stalke, that one or two stalkes of flowers
are in stead of a whole nose-gay, or bundell of flowers tyed together. This I
doe affirme vpon good knowledge and certaine experience, and not as a great
many others doe, tell of the wonders of an|other world, which themselues neuer
saw nor euer heard of, except some superficiall relation, which themselues haue
augmented according to their owne fansie and con|ceit. Againe, let me here
also by the way tell you, that many idle and ignorant Gardi|ners and others,
who get names by stealth, as they doe many other things, doe call some of these Daffodils Narcisses, when as all know that know
any Latine, that Nar|cissus is the Latine name, and Daffodill the English of
one and the same thing; and therefore alone without any other Epithite cannot
properly distinguish seuerall things. I would willingly therefore that all
would grow iudicious, and call euery thing by his proper English name in
speaking English, or else by such Latine name as euery thing hath that hath not
a proper English name, that thereby they may distinguish the seue|rall
varieties of things and not confound them, as also to take away all excuses of
mista|king; as for example: The single English bastard Daffodill (which groweth
wilde in many Woods, Groues, and Orchards in England.) The double English
bastard Daffo|dill. The French single white Daffodill many vpon a stalke. The
French double yel|low Daffodill. The great, or the little, or the least Spanish
yellow bastard Daffodill, or the great or little Spanish white Daffodill. The
Turkie single white Daffodill, or, The Turkie single or double white Daffodill
many vpon a stalke, &c. Of Fritillaria, or the checkerd
Daffodill, there are halfe a score seuerall sorts, both white and red, both
yel|low and blacke, which are a wonderfull grace and ornament to a Garden in
regard of the CHECKER LIKE SPOTS are in the flowers.
Author: Ogilby,
John, 1600-1676.
Title: Africa being an accurate description of the regions of AEgypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid, the land of Negroes, Guinee, AEthiopia and the Abyssines : with all the adjacent islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern or Oriental Sea, belonging thereunto : with the several denominations fo their coasts, harbors, creeks, rivers, lakes, cities, towns, castles, and villages, their customs, modes and manners, languages, religions and inexhaustible treasure : with their governments and policy, variety of trade and barter : and also of their wonderful plants, beasts, birds and serpents : collected and translated from most authentick authors and augmented with later observations : illustrated with notes and adorn'd with peculiar maps and proper sculptures / by John Ogilby, Esq. ...
Date: 1670
Title: Africa being an accurate description of the regions of AEgypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid, the land of Negroes, Guinee, AEthiopia and the Abyssines : with all the adjacent islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern or Oriental Sea, belonging thereunto : with the several denominations fo their coasts, harbors, creeks, rivers, lakes, cities, towns, castles, and villages, their customs, modes and manners, languages, religions and inexhaustible treasure : with their governments and policy, variety of trade and barter : and also of their wonderful plants, beasts, birds and serpents : collected and translated from most authentick authors and augmented with later observations : illustrated with notes and adorn'd with peculiar maps and proper sculptures / by John Ogilby, Esq. ...
Date: 1670
Close by the Fort
of Good-Hope, on a Mountain call'd, The Vineyard, the Ne|therlanders have
Planted forty thousand Vine-stocks, which all at this day send forth lusty
Sprouts and Leaves, and bear Grapes in such abundance, that some|times they
press Wine of them: They have there also Peaches, Apricocks, Ches|nuts,
Olive-Trees, and such like Fruits.
There
grow wild upon the Mountains, and in the Valleys, and on the banks of the
Rivers, manyother sorts of Plants; as among the rest a peculiar sort of
Tulips, Sempervive, Fritillaria, or
Speckled Lillies, Penny-Wort, or Dragon-Wort with sharp pointed Leaves, Sorrel
with knotted Roots, and white Blossoms.
The Tulip bears a
bole bigger than ones fist, having thick Shells, but of a faint smell. The Blossom that
shoots out before the Leaves in April, of a very high red
colour, appearing very gloriously, and hath five broad, long, and thick Leaves;
within having whitish red Stripes, and at the end a round Stalk of a span long,
streak'd and speckled with purple upon a white ground. It grows upon the
Mountains.
The Sempervive or
House-Leek, hath Leaves almost a finger thick, whitish green, and as big almost
as the Palm of ones Hand. The Fritillaria, or the SPECKLED NARCISSUS, which
some reckon as a sort of Denti|laria, or Eminie; hath
in stead of Leaves, Sprouts of a fingers length, thick and juicy, with sharp
and round broken edges like Teeth, of a pale purple above, and underneath green:
At the Leaves comes a flower that hath five limber Leaves, sharp at the ends,
with a high Crown or Tuft in the middle, hollow within, inclosing another
flower, which hath also five Leaves, all yellow, but of a dark-brown at the
ends, with some very red standards in the middle: this Plant hath no smell, and
grows upon barren and Sandy Mountains.
**************************
Jonson, Pans
Anniversary
Shepherd: Well done,
my pretty ones; rain roses still,
Until the last be
dropped. Then hence, and fill
Your fragrant
prickles for a second shower;
Bring corn-flag,
tulips and Adonis’ flower,
Fair ox-eye,
goldilocks and columbine,
Pinks, goulands,
king-cups and sweet sops-in-wine,
Blue harebells,
paigles, pansies, calaminth,
Flower-gentle, and
the fair-haired hyacinth;
Bring rich carnations,
flower-de-luces, litlies,
The CHECKED and
purple-ringed DAFFODILLIES…
**************************
Echo’s Lament of
Narcissus:
- Slow, slow,
fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears:
Yet, slower, yet; O faintly, gentle springs:
List to the heavy part the music bears,
Woe weeps out her division, when she sings.
Droop herbs, and flowers,
Fall grief in showers,
Our beauties are not ours;
O, I could still,
Like melting snow upon some craggy hill,
Drop, drop, drop, drop,
Since nature's pride is now, a WITHERED DAFFODIL. - Cynthia's
Revels (1600),
Act I, scene i.
- *********************************
De vere argutis. - I do hear them say often some men are not
witty,
because they are not everywhere witty; than which nothing is more
foolish. If an eye or a nose be an excellent part in the face,
therefore be all eye or nose! I think the eyebrow, the forehead, the
cheek, chin, lip, or any part else are as necessary and natural in the
place. But now nothing is good that is natural; RIGHT and NATURAL
LANGUAGE seems to have least of the WIT in it; that which is writhed
and tortured is counted the more exquisite. Cloth of bodkin or tissue
must be embroidered; as if no face were fair that were not powdered or
painted! no beauty to be had but in wresting and writhing our own
tongue! Nothing is fashionable till it be DEFORMED; and this is to
write like a gentleman. All must be affected and preposterous as our
gallants' clothes, sweet-bags, and night-dressings, in which you would
think our men lay in, like ladies, it is so CURIOUS.
because they are not everywhere witty; than which nothing is more
foolish. If an eye or a nose be an excellent part in the face,
therefore be all eye or nose! I think the eyebrow, the forehead, the
cheek, chin, lip, or any part else are as necessary and natural in the
place. But now nothing is good that is natural; RIGHT and NATURAL
LANGUAGE seems to have least of the WIT in it; that which is writhed
and tortured is counted the more exquisite. Cloth of bodkin or tissue
must be embroidered; as if no face were fair that were not powdered or
painted! no beauty to be had but in wresting and writhing our own
tongue! Nothing is fashionable till it be DEFORMED; and this is to
write like a gentleman. All must be affected and preposterous as our
gallants' clothes, sweet-bags, and night-dressings, in which you would
think our men lay in, like ladies, it is so CURIOUS.
******************************
Speckled/Spotted Narcissus:
Upon Ben: Johnson, the most excellent of Comick Poets.
Mirror of Poets! Mirror of our Age!
Which her whole Face beholding on thy stage,
Pleas'd and displeas'd with her owne faults endures,
A remedy, like Those whom Musicke cures,
Thou not alone those various inclinations,
Which Nature gives to Ages, Sexes, Nations,
Hast traced with thy All-resembling Pen,
But all that custome hath impos'd on Men,
Or ill-got Habits, which distort them so,
That scarce the Brother can the Brother know,
Is represented to the wondring Eyes,
Of all that see or read thy Comedies.
Whoever in those Glasses lookes may finde,
The SPOTS return'd, or graces of his minde;
And by the helpe of so divine an Art,
At leisure view, and dresse his nobler part.
*NARCISSUS conzen'd by that flattering Well,
Which nothing could but of his beauty tell,
Had here discovering the DEFORM'D estate
Of his fond minde, preserv'd himselfe with hate*,
But Vertue too, as well as Vice is clad,
In flesh and blood so well, that Plato had
Beheld what his high Fancie once embrac'd,
Vertue with colour, speech and motion grac'd.
The sundry Postures of Thy copious Muse,
Who would expresse a thousand tongues must use,
Whose Fates no lesse peculiar then thy Art,
For as thou couldst all characters impart,
So none can render thine, who still escapes,
Like Proteus in variety of shapes,
Who was nor this nor that, but all we finde,
And all we can imagine in mankind.
E. Waller
Which her whole Face beholding on thy stage,
Pleas'd and displeas'd with her owne faults endures,
A remedy, like Those whom Musicke cures,
Thou not alone those various inclinations,
Which Nature gives to Ages, Sexes, Nations,
Hast traced with thy All-resembling Pen,
But all that custome hath impos'd on Men,
Or ill-got Habits, which distort them so,
That scarce the Brother can the Brother know,
Is represented to the wondring Eyes,
Of all that see or read thy Comedies.
Whoever in those Glasses lookes may finde,
The SPOTS return'd, or graces of his minde;
And by the helpe of so divine an Art,
At leisure view, and dresse his nobler part.
*NARCISSUS conzen'd by that flattering Well,
Which nothing could but of his beauty tell,
Had here discovering the DEFORM'D estate
Of his fond minde, preserv'd himselfe with hate*,
But Vertue too, as well as Vice is clad,
In flesh and blood so well, that Plato had
Beheld what his high Fancie once embrac'd,
Vertue with colour, speech and motion grac'd.
The sundry Postures of Thy copious Muse,
Who would expresse a thousand tongues must use,
Whose Fates no lesse peculiar then thy Art,
For as thou couldst all characters impart,
So none can render thine, who still escapes,
Like Proteus in variety of shapes,
Who was nor this nor that, but all we finde,
And all we can imagine in mankind.
E. Waller
****************************************
‘Male deformities’: Narcissus and the Reformation of Courtly
Manners in Cynthia’s Revels
in Ovid & the Renaissance Body
By Goran V Stanivukovic
Mario Digangi
(snip)
...N this essay I want to pursue such an analysis by focusing on Ben Jonson’s early comedy Cynthia’s Revels (1600), which offers particular insight into the social and political implications of the Narcissus myth for early modern English culture. Originally entered in the Stationer’s Register as Narcissus, or the fountain of self-love, this quirky satire of courtly manners represents Jonson’s ‘only extended use of Ovidian material.: Jonson’s uncharacteristic recourse to Ovidian subjects in Cynthia’s Revels suggests his recognition of the Narcissus myth’s theatrical viability as a vehicle for satire. While Narcissus never appears as a character in the play, the Narcissus myth provides Jonson with vivid material for exposing the transgressive bodily practices of unauthorized courtiers, especially through the character of Amorphous (“the deformed”), whose affected manners violate orthodox prescriptions for male aristocratic comportment. The play’s ridicule of courtly affectation thus accords with early modern interpretations of the Narcissus myth that primarily associate self-love not with homoerotic desire but with EFFEMINATE MANNERS: a clear sign of social, economic and political transgression. By contrast, the virtuously ‘masculine’ comportment of the true gentleman, according to a particular strain of early modern political ideology, justifies his status and exercise of power. Exposing illegitimate courtiers as effeminate narcissists, Cynthia’s Revels reveals the importance of an ideology of ‘civilized’ masculinity to early-seventeenth-century constructions of *political legitimacy*.
**************************************
in Ovid & the Renaissance Body
By Goran V Stanivukovic
Mario Digangi
(snip)
...N this essay I want to pursue such an analysis by focusing on Ben Jonson’s early comedy Cynthia’s Revels (1600), which offers particular insight into the social and political implications of the Narcissus myth for early modern English culture. Originally entered in the Stationer’s Register as Narcissus, or the fountain of self-love, this quirky satire of courtly manners represents Jonson’s ‘only extended use of Ovidian material.: Jonson’s uncharacteristic recourse to Ovidian subjects in Cynthia’s Revels suggests his recognition of the Narcissus myth’s theatrical viability as a vehicle for satire. While Narcissus never appears as a character in the play, the Narcissus myth provides Jonson with vivid material for exposing the transgressive bodily practices of unauthorized courtiers, especially through the character of Amorphous (“the deformed”), whose affected manners violate orthodox prescriptions for male aristocratic comportment. The play’s ridicule of courtly affectation thus accords with early modern interpretations of the Narcissus myth that primarily associate self-love not with homoerotic desire but with EFFEMINATE MANNERS: a clear sign of social, economic and political transgression. By contrast, the virtuously ‘masculine’ comportment of the true gentleman, according to a particular strain of early modern political ideology, justifies his status and exercise of power. Exposing illegitimate courtiers as effeminate narcissists, Cynthia’s Revels reveals the importance of an ideology of ‘civilized’ masculinity to early-seventeenth-century constructions of *political legitimacy*.
**************************************
XIII. Epistle. TO
KATHERINE, LADY AVBIGNY:
'TIs growne almost a danger to speake true
Of any good minde, now: There are so few.
The bad, by number, are so fortified,
As what th'haue lost t'expect, they dare deride.
So both the prais'd, and praisers suffer: Yet,
For others ill, ought none their good forget.
I, therefore, who professe my selfe in loue
With euery vertue, wheresoere it moue,
And howsoeuer; as I am at fewd
With sinne and vice, though with a throne endew'd;
And, in this name, am giuen out dangerous
By arts, and practise of the vicious,
Such as suspect them-selues, and thinke it fit
For their owne cap'tall crimes, t'indite my wit;
I, that haue suffer'd this; and, though forsooke
Of Fortune, haue not alter'd yet my looke,
Or so my selfe abandon'd, as because
Men are not iust, or keepe no holy lawesOf nature, and societie, I should faint;
Or feare to draw true lines, 'cause others paint·
I, Madame, am become your praiser. Where,
If it may stand with your soft blush to heare,
Your selfe but told vnto your selfe, and see
In my character, what your features bee,
You will not from the paper slightly passe:
No lady, but, at some time, loues her glasse.
And this shall be no false one, but as much
Remou'd, as you from need to haue it such.
Looke then, and see your selfe. I will not say
Your beautie; for you see that euery day:
And so doe many more. All which can call
It perfect, proper, pure, and naturall·
Not taken vp o'th'doctors, but as well
As I, can say, and see it doth excell.
That askes but to be censur'd by the eyes:
And, in those outward formes, all fooles are wise.
Nor that your beautie wanted not a dower,
Doe I reflect. Some alderman has power,
Or cos'ning farmer of the customes so,
T'aduance his doubtfull issue, and ore-flow
A Princes fortune: These are gifts of chance,
And raise not vertue; they may vice enhance.
MY MIRROR is more subtile, cleere, refin'd,
And takes, and giues the BEAUTIES OF THE MIND.
Though it reiect not those of FORTVNE: such
As bloud, and match. Wherein, how more then much
Are you engaged to your happy fate,
For such a lot! that mixt you with a state
Of so great title, birth, but vertue most,
Without which, all the rest were sounds, or lost.
'Tis onely that can time, and chance defeat:
For he, that once is good, is euer great.
Wherewith, then, Madame, can you better pay
This blessing of your starres, then by that way
Of vertue, which you tread? what if alone?
Without companions? 'Tis safe to haue none.
In single paths, dangers with ease are watch'd:
Contagion in the prease is soonest catch'd.
This makes, that wisely you decline your life,
Farre from the maze of custome, error, strife,
And keepe an euen, and vnalter'd gaite;
Not looking by, or backe (like those, that waite
Times, and occasions, to start forth, and seeme)
Which though the turning world may dis-esteeme,
Because that studies spectacles, and showes,
And after varyed, as fresh obiects goes,
Giddie with change, and therefore cannot see
Right, the right way: yet must your comfort bee
Your conscience, and not wonder, if none askes
For truthes complexion, where they all weare maskes.
(SNIP)
