The juice of Hebon, and Cocytus’ breath.”
There is no tradition of poisonous properties associated with ebony, as there is with both henbane and yew, but in regard to henbane, a remarkable passage has been found in Holland’s translation of Pliny which was published in London just about the time when Shakespeare was writing “Hamlet.” Pliny, dealing with henbane, says (in this translation): “An oile is made of the seed thereof which if it be but dropped into the eares is ynough to trouble the braine.” Shakespeare must have been a voracious reader, he probably got Holland’s book as soon as it came out, and finding this passage, adopted the suggestion. He was no doubt familiar with the word hebon or hebonus, and chose that for his verse, perhaps without caring very much whether it was a correct interpretation of henbane or not. As a matter of fact, in the earlier editions of “Hamlet” the word appears as hebona. In the folios, which came later, hebonon is substituted, no doubt out of consideration for euphony.
It is notable that the player who enacts the murder of the King (Act III., Sc. 2) describes the poison as a
“Mixture rank of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecat’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected.”
This of course does not correspond with the suggestion that the juice of hebenon was the product of some one poisonous plant.
XIX
SOME NOTED DRUGS.
Who was the first cultivator of corn? Who first tamed and domesticated the animals whose strength we use, and whom we make our food? Or who first discovered the medicinal herbs which from the earliest times have been our resource against disease?
Cardinal Newman: Sermon on The World’s Benefactors.