PLANTAIN.
The most common old names for the Plantain were Waybroad (corrupted to Weybread, Wayborn, and Wayforn) and Ribwort. It was also called Lamb's-tongue and Kemps, while the flower spike with the stalk was called Cocks and Cockfighters (still so called by children).[214:1] The old name of Ribwort was derived from the ribbed leaves, while Waybroad marked its universal appearance, scattered by all roadsides and pathways, and literally bred by the wayside. It has a similar name in German, Wegetritt, that is Waytread; and on this account the Swedes name the plant Wagbredblad, and the Indians of North America Whiteman's Foot, for it springs up near every new settlement, having sprung up after the English settlers, not only in America, but also in Australia and New Zealand—
"Whereso'er they move, before them
Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo,
Swarms the bee, the honey-maker:
Wheresoe'er they tread, beneath them
Springs a flower unknown among us,
Springs the 'White man's foot' in blossom."
Longfellow's Hiawatha.
And "so it is a mistake to say that Plantain is derived from the likeness of the plant to the sole of the foot, as in Richardson's Dictionary. Rather say, because the herb grows under the sole of the foot."—Johnston. How, or when, or why the plant lost its old English names to take the Latin name of Plantain, it is hard to say. It occurs in a vocabulary of the names of plants of the middle of the thirteenth century—"Plantago, Planteine, Weibrode," and apparently came to us from the French, "Cy est assets de Planteyne, Weybrede."—Walter de Biblesworth (13th cent.) But with the exception of Chaucer[215:1] I believe Shakespeare is almost the only early writer that uses the name, though it is very certain that he did not invent it; but "Plantage" (No [3]), which is doubtless the same plant, is peculiar to him.[215:2]
It was as a medical herb that our forefathers chiefly valued the Plantain, and for medical purposes its reputation was of the very highest. In a book of recipes (Lacnunga) of the eleventh century, by Ælfric, is an address to the Waybroad, which is worth extracting at length—
"And thou, Waybroad!
Mother of worts,
Open from eastward,
Mighty within;
Over thee carts creaked,
Over thee Queens rode,
Over thee brides bridalled,
Over thee bulls breathed,
All these thou withstood'st
Venom and vile things
And all the loathly ones
That through the land rove."
Cockayne's Translation.
In another earlier recipe book the Waybroad is prescribed for twenty-two diseases, one after another; and in another of the same date we are taught how to apply it: "If a man ache in half his head . . . delve up Waybroad without iron ere the rising of the sun, bind the roots about the head with Crosswort by a red fillet, soon he will be well." But the Plantain did not long sustain its high reputation, which even in Shakespeare's time had become much diminished. "I find," says Gerard, "in ancient writers many good-morrowes, which I think not meet to bring into your memorie againe; as that three roots will cure one griefe, four another disease, six hanged about the neck are good for another maladie, &c., all which are but ridiculous toys." Yet the bruised leaves still have some reputation as a styptic and healing plaster among country herbalists, and perhaps the alleged virtues are not altogether fanciful.
As a garden plant the Plantain can only be regarded as a weed and nuisance, especially on lawns, where it is very difficult to destroy them. Yet there are some curious varieties which may claim a corner where botanical curiosities are grown. The Plantain seems to have a peculiar tendency to run into abnormal forms, many of which will be found described and figured in Dr. Masters' "Vegetable Teratology," and among these forms are two which are exactly like a double green Rose, and have been cultivated as the Rose Plantain for many years. They were grown by Gerard, who speaks of "the beauty which is in the plant," and compared it to "a fine double Rose of a hoary or rusty greene colour." Parkinson also grew it and valued it highly.
FOOTNOTES:
[214:1] Of these names Plantain properly belongs to Plantago major; Lamb's-tongue to P. media; and Kemps, Cocks, and Ribwort to P. lanceolata.
"His forehead dropped as a stillatorie
Were ful of Plantayn and peritorie."
Prologue of the Chanoune's Yeman.
[215:2] Nares, and Schmidt from him, consider Plantage = anything planted.
PLUMS, WITH DAMSONS AND PRUNES.
| (1) | Constance. | Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will Give it a Plum, a Cherry, and a Fig. |
| King John, act ii, sc. 1 (161). | ||
| (2) | Hamlet. | The satirical rogue says here that old men havegrey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, theireyes purging thick amber and Plum-tree gum. |
| Hamlet, act ii, sc. 2 (198). | ||
| (3) | Simpcox. | A fall off a tree. |
| Wife. | A Plum-tree, master. | |
| * * * * * | ||
| Gloucester. | Mass, thou lovedst Plums well that wouldst venture so. | |
| Simpcox. | Alas! good master, my wife desired some Damsons, And made me climb with danger of my life. | |
| 2nd Henry VI, act ii, sc. 1 (196). | ||
| (4) | Evans. | I will dance and eat Plums at your wedding. |
| Merry Wives of Windsor, act v, sc. 5.[217:1] | ||
| (5) | The mellow Plum doth fall, the green sticks fast, Or, being early pluck'd, is sour to taste. | |
| Venus and Adonis (527). | ||
| (6) | Like a green Plum that hangs upon a tree, And falls, through wind, before the fall should be. | |
| Passionate Pilgrim (135). | ||
| (7) | Slender. | Three veneys for a dish of stewed Prunes. |
| Merry Wives of Windsor, act i, sc. 1 (295). | ||
| (8) | Falstaff. | There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed Prune. |
| 1st Henry IV, act iii, sc. 3 (127). | ||
| (9) | Pompey. | Longing (saving your honour's presence) for stewed Prunes. |
| * * * * * | ||
| And longing, as I said, for Prunes. | ||
| * * * * * | ||
| You being then, if you he remembered, crackingthe stones of the foresaid Prunes. | ||
| Measure for Measure, act ii, sc. 1 (92). | ||
| (10) | Clown. | Four pounds of Prunes, and as many of Raisins of the sun. |
| Winters Tale, act iv, sc. 3 (51). | ||
| (11) | Falstaff. | Hang him, rogue; he lives upon mouldy stewedPrunes and dried cakes. |
| 2nd Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4 (158). | ||
Plums, Damsons, and Prunes may conveniently be joined together, Plums and Damsons being often used synonymously (as in No. [3]), and Prunes being the dried Plums. The Damsons were originally, no doubt, a good variety from the East, and nominally from Damascus.[217:2] They seem to have been considered great delicacies, as in a curious allegorical drama of the fifteenth century, called "La Nef de Sante," of which an account is given by Mr. Wright: "Bonne-Compagnie, to begin the day, orders a collation, at which, among other things, are served Damsons (Prunes de Damas), which appear at this time to have been considered as delicacies. There is here a marginal direction to the purport that if the morality should be performed in the season when real Damsons could not be had, the performers must have some made of wax to look like real ones" ("History of Domestic Manners," &c.).
The garden Plums are a good cultivated variety of our own wild Sloe, but a variety that did not originate in England, and may very probably have been introduced by the Romans. The Sloe and Bullace are, speaking botanically, two sub-species of Prunus communis, while the Plum is a third sub-species (P. communis domestica). The garden Plum is occasionally found wild in England, but is certainly not indigenous. It is somewhat strange that our wild plant is not mentioned by Shakespeare under any of its well-known names of Sloe, Bullace, and Blackthorn. Not only is it a shrub of very marked appearance in our hedgerows in early spring, when it is covered with its pure white blossoms, but Blackthorn staves were indispensable in the rough game of quarterstaff, and the Sloe gave point to more than one English proverb: "as black as a Sloe," was a very common comparison, and "as useless as a Sloe," or "not worth a Sloe," was as common.
"Sir Amys answered, 'Tho'
I give thee thereof not one Sloe!
Do right all that thou may!"
Amys and Amylion—Ellis's Romances.
"The offecial seyde, Thys ys nowth
Be God, that me der bowthe,
Het ys not worthe a Sclo."
The Frere and His Boy—Ritson's Ancient Popular Poetry.
Though even as a fruit the Sloe had its value, and was not altogether despised by our ancestors, for thus Tusser advises—
"By thend of October go gather up Sloes,
Have thou in readines plentie of thoes,
And keepe them in bed-straw, or still on the bow,
To staie both the flix of thyselfe and thy cow."
As soon as the garden Plum was introduced, great attention seems to have been paid to it, and the gardeners of Shakespeare's time could probably show as good Plums as we can now. "To write of Plums particularly," said Gerard, "would require a peculiar volume. . . . Every clymate hath his owne fruite, far different from that of other countries; my selfe have threescore sorts in my garden, and all strange and rare; there be in other places many more common, and yet yearly commeth to our hands others not before knowne."
FOOTNOTES:
[217:1] Omitted in the Globe edition.
[217:2] Bullein, in his "Government of Health," 1588, calls them "Damaske Prunes."