PLANT PARALLELISMS: Oxford's Extensive Knowledge Of Plants From Looking At Flower Pots.
Elizabeth
There's a pointless quibble going on in another thread over which
authorship claimant--Oxford or the Stratford broker--knew anything
about gardening.
Answer: There's no evidence that either of them had any interest in
gardening.
The Stratford broker sent his wagons around to collect tithes
in the form of corn and hay which is called 'speculating on
crops,' not gardening.
My Lorde of Oxfenforde got the standard spoiled feudal earl upbringing
which involved a lot of fencing, tilting and preening,
but nothing about the art of manuring the petunias.
Oxford's little cousin Francis Bacon, on the other hand, was a commoner
after his father kicked him out of the will and as such was free to
wander around the magnificent estates of his aristocratic relatives
conversing with the gardeners.
Bacon trained himself to be a landscape architect. One of his famous
designs was done for the gardens of Gray's Inn. Bacon's lanes of trees
surived the Blitz and are still standing today.
Bacon may also be the architect of 'Shakespeare's house,' a
folly with its own garden at Wilton. Bacon's cousin the Countess
of Pembroke refers to 'the man Shakespeare' in a now-lost
letter and the baroque English folly is a replica in minature
of Bacon's own house at New Gorhambury.
Bacon's Of Gardens is still one of the most popular essays on the
subject and is reprinted and quoted in garden books and magazines
today.
In this very short essay, Bacon not only lists fifty four (!) plants
found in the Shakespeare plays, he displays a knowledge of grafting
reiterated in Perdita's lines in AWT, and like Perdita, speaks of
three, not four, seasons of the year (blooming seasons).
Bacon wrote:
"For we see a scion or young slip grafted upon the trunk of a tree,
to shoot forth more prosperously, than if it had been set in earth"
(Book V., "Advancement of Learning," 1606, p.227)
Perdita. I care not
To get slips of them.
Polix. We marry
A gentle scion to the wildest stock.
(Winter's Tale, act iii. sc. 4)
In his famous essay Francis Bacon
gives advice on planting to make a garden bloom
year round.
Perdita, in A Winter's Tale, also organizes the
blooming season around the calendar.
Both Perdita and Bacon divide the
year into three seasons instead of four.
The capitalized plant names are found in both
Bacon's Of Gardens and the Shakespeare works.
PERDITA:
Reverend sirs,
For you there's ROSEMARY and RUE; these keep
Seeming and savour all the Winter long :
. . . . Shepherdess,
(A fair one are you,) well you fit our ages
With flowers of Winter."
BACON:
"For December, and January, and the latter part of November, you must
take such things as are green all winter: HOLLY, IVY, BAYS, Juniper,
CYPRESS-TREES, YEW, Pineapple-trees; Fir-trees, ROSEMARY, LAVENDER;
PERIWINKLE, the white, the purple, and the blue; Germander, FLAGS,
ORANGE-TREES, LEMON-trees, and MYRTLEs, if they be stoved; and Sweet
MARJORAM, warm set. There followeth, for the latter part of January
and February, the Mezereon-tree, which then blossoms: Crocus Vernus,
both the yellow and the gray; PRIMROSES, Anemones, the early Tulip,
the Hyacinthus Orientalis, Chamairis Fritellaria.
PERDITA:
Out, alas!
You' d be so lean, that blasts of January
Would blow you through and through. Now, my fair'st friend,
I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might
Become your time of day; and yours, and yours,
DAFFODILS,
That wear upon your virgin branches yet
Your maidenheads growing: O Proserpina!
For the flowers now that frighted thou let'st fall
From Dis's waggon! DAFFODILS,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; VIOLETS dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
Or Cytherea's breath; pale PRIME-ROSES,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady
Most incident to maids; bold OXLIPS and
The CROWN IMPERIAL; LILIES of all kinds,
The fLOWER-DE-LUCE being one!
Winter's Tale IV. Sc. 3
BACON:
"For March, there come VIOLETs, especially the single blue, which are
the earliest; the yellow DAFFODIL, the DAISY, the ALMOND-tree in
blossom, the PEACH-tree in blossom, the Cornelian-tree in blossom,
Sweet-BRIAR. In April follow the double white VIOLET, the Wallflower,
the Stock-Gilliflower, the COWSLIP, FLOWER-DE-LUCES,' and LILIES of
all natures; ROSEMARY-flowers, the TULIP, the double PEONY, the pale
DAFFODIL, the French HONEYSUCKLE, the CHERRY-TREE in blossom, the
Damascene' and PLUM-trees in blossom, the White Thom in leaf, the
Lilac-tree. In May and June come PINKS of all sorts, specially the
Blush-PINK; ROSES of all kinds, except the Musk, which comes later;
HONEYSUCKLES, STRAWBERRIES, Bugloss, COLUMBINE, the FRENCH MARYGOLD,
Flos Africanus, CHERRY-TREE in fruit, Ribes, FIGs in fruit, Rasps,
Vine-flocvers, LAVENDER in flowers, the sweet Satyrian, with the white
flower; Herba Muscaria, Lilium, Convallium, the APPLE-tree in blossom.
there ought to be gardens for all the months of the year; in which
severally things of beauty may be then in season" and he proceeds to
name the flowers proper to each month and season."
PERDITA:
Sir, the year growing ancient,
Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth
Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o th' season
Are our CARNATIONS, and STREAK'D GILLIFLOWERS
Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind
Our rustic garden's barren, and I care not
To get slips of them.......
Here's flowers for you;
Hot LAVENDER, MINT, savory, MARJORAM;
The marigold, that goes to bed with th' sun:
And with him rises,weeping: these are flowers
Of middle Summer, and I think they' re given
To men of middle age." Act IV. Sc.3
BACON:
In July come GILLYFLOWERS of all varieties, MUSK ROSEs, the LIME-tree
in blossom, early PEARs, and PLUMs in fruit, Genitings, Codlins. In
August come PLUMs of all sorts in fruit, PEARs, Apricots, Barberries,
FILBERTs, Musk-Melons, Monks-hoods, of all colours. In September come
GRAPEs, APPLEs, POPPIES of all colours, PEACHES, Melocotones,
Nectarines, Cornelians, Wardens, QUINCEs. In October, and the
beginning of November, come Services, MEDLARs, Bullaces, ROSEs cut or
removed to come late, HOLLYOAKs, and such like. These particulars are
for the climate of London; but my meaning is perceived, that you may
have ver perpetuum, as the place affords.
In another section in Of Gardens Bacon listed the plants by scent:
On Scents
And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it
comes and goes, like the warbling of music), than in the hand,
therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know what be
the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. ROSEs, damask
and red, are fast' flowers of their smells; so that you may walk by a
whole row of them, and find nothing of their sweetness; yea, though it
be in a morning's dew. BAYs, likewise, yield no smell as they grow,
ROSEMARY little, nor Sweet MARJORAM; that which, above all others,
yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the VIOLET, especially the
white double VIOLET, which comes twice a year, about the middle of
April, and about Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the Musk-ROSE; then
the STRAWBERRY leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial smell; then
the flower of the VINES, it is a little dust like the dust of a Bent,
which grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth; then
SWEET- BRIAR, then WALLFLOWERS, which are very delightful to be set
under a Parlour or lower chamber window; then PINKs and GILLYFLOWERS,
specially the matted PINK and CLOVE GILLYFLOWER; then the flowers of
the LIME-tree; then the HONEYSUCKLEs, so they be somewhat afar off.
Of BEAN-flowers I speak not, because they are field-flowers;
but
those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the
rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three; that is, BURNET,
Wild THYME, and Water-MINTs; therefore you are to set whole alleys of
them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread.
Cordially,
Elizabeth