“When that the first cock hath crowed, anon
Up rose this jolly lover Absolon,
And him arrayed gay at point devise,
But first he chewed grains and liquorice,
To smelle sweet ere he combed his hair.
Under his tongue a true love he bear,
For thereby thought he to be gracious.”
Like unto other votaries at the shrine of Venus, our astrologer took pains to make himself look to the best advantage, and evidently bestowed the greatest care on his dress. To perfume his breath and make himself acceptable to his lady love, he chewed grains of paradise and liquorice. The former was a favourite spice in early times, but now rarely used. It has a strong aromatic taste, which is imparted by an essential oil it contains. The “true love” is thought to mean some charm or sweetmeat in the form of a “true lover’s knot,” which he placed under his tongue for the same purpose, and thus this ancient gallant went forth to woo.
That belladonna was used in Chaucer’s time as a narcotic may be gathered from a passage in the Reeve’s tale, which runs:—
“To bedde went the daughter right anon,
To bedde went Alein and also John.
There was no more, needed them no dwale.”
Dwale was an old name for the nightshade, and we may infer its properties were known, as it was used to produce sleep at this period.
In the Nun’s Priest’s tale we are given a receipt for bad dreams and melancholy, which gives an example of the housewife’s knowledge of the herbs and simples which grew in her garden:—
“Through in this town is no apothecary,
I shall myself two herbes teache you,
That shall be for your health and for your prow,
And in our yard the herbs shall I find,
The which have of their property by kind,
To purge you beneath and eke above,
Sire, forget not this for Godde’s love.
Ye be full coleric of complexion,
Ware that the sun in his ascension,
You finde not replete of humours hot,
And if it do I dare well lay a groat,
That ye shall have a fever tertiane,
Or else an ague that may be your bane.
A day or two ye shall have digestives,
Of wormes, ere ye take your laxatives
Of laurel, centaury, and fumetére,
Or else of elderberry that groweth there,
Of catapuce, or of the gaitre berries,
Or herb ivy growing in our yard that merry is.
Pick them right as they grow and eat them in,
Be merry husband for your father’s kin.
Dreade no dream. I can say you no more.”
The patient seems threatened with a fever, and the good-wife, after some wholesome advice, doses him with digestives for a day or two, and afterwards with aperients. Laurel would doubtless refer to the leaves of the cherry laurel, which, infused with wine, was an old digestive tonic. Centaury, common in our fields, enjoyed a very early reputation. The herb was so called because it is said that by its virtue the centaur Chiron was healed when the poisoned arrow of Hercules had accidentally wounded his foot. Fumitory, too, was grown by the housewives, and was used as a tonic and a remedy for jaundice.
The curative properties of the elder-berry are still recognised as astringent and sudorific, and take a place in domestic remedies.
Catapuce is the old name for spurge, a common herb formerly used for its purgative properties; while the gaitre or dogwood-berries, and the herb ivy, were also used as laxative medicines and liver stimulants.