207.52
There mournfull Cypresse grew in greatest store,
2 And trees of bitter Gall, and Heben sad,
Dead sleeping Poppy, and blacke Hellebore,
4 Cold Coloquintida, and Tetra mad,
Mortall Samnitis, and Cicuta bad,
6 +Which with+ +th'vniust+ Atheniens made to dy
Wise Socrates, who thereof quaffing glad
8 Pourd out his life, and last Philosophy
To the faire Critias his dearest Belamy.
6 Which with > Which-with 1609; With which sugg. most editors 6 th'vniust > th vniust 1596
1 There mournful cypress grew in greatest store,
cypress > (Cupressus spp., C. sempervirens in classical mythology, trees associated with death and grief. Cf. 201.60:3, 106.17:2)
2 And trees of bitter gall, and ebon sad,
gall > (Gall is another name for bile, the intensely bitter secretion of the liver: by transference applied to any poison or venom; the gall-nut or oak-apple is an excrescence caused on oak trees by insects of the family Cynipidae. Hence "trees of bitter Gall" might be intended to mean "oaks") ebon > {Ebony, made of ebony, a tree of the family Ebenaceae, esp. Diospyros ebenus, producing hard black wood}
3 Dead sleeping poppy, and black hellebore,
sleeping > (Because it produces opium) black hellebore > (Probably Helleborus foetidus (colloquially called the stinking hellebore) rather than the green hellebore H. viridis. Both are highly poisonous plants found growing in England, and were formerly used officinally as violent cathartics and emetics, though they are so dangerous that their use was abandoned)
4 Cold coloquintida, and tetra mad,