The Old English Herbals

by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde

PORTRAIT OF JOHN GERARD FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF THE “HERBALL” (1597)

Even the most cursory reading of the book suggests how much we lose by the lack of the old simple belief in the efficacy of herbs to cure not only physical ills, but also those of the mind and even of the heart. This belief was shared by the greatest civilisations of antiquity, and it is only we poor moderns who ignore the fact that “very wonderful effects may be wrought by the Vertues, which are enveloped within the compasse of the Green Mantles wherewith many Plants are adorned.”[83] Doctors are cautious folk nowadays, but it is wonderful to think of a time when the world was so young that people were brave and hopeful enough to imagine that mere humans could alleviate, even cure, the sorrows of others. If ever anything so closely approaching the miraculous is attempted again one feels very sure that we shall turn, as the wise men of the oldest civilisations did, to God’s most beautiful creations to accomplish the miracle. In common with the majority of the old herbalists, Gerard had a faith in herbs which was simple and unquestioning. Sweet marjoram, he tells us, is for those “who are given to over-much sighing.” Again, “The smell of Basil is good for the heart ... it taketh away sorrowfulness, which commeth of melancholy and maketh a man merry and glad.” “Bawme comforts the heart and driveth away all melancholy and sadnesse: it makes the heart merry and joyfull and strengtheneth the vitall spirits.” “Chervil root boiled and after dressed as the cunning Cook knoweth how better than myself is very good for old people that are dull and without courage.” Of the despised dead-nettle he tells us that “the flowers baked with sugar, as roses are, maketh the vitall spirits more fresh and lively.” In connection with borage he quotes the well-known old couplet:

“I Borage
Bring alwaies Courage.”

“Those of our time,” he continues, “do use the floures in sallads to exhilerate the mind and make the mind glad. There be also many things made of them, used everywhere for the comfort of the heart, for the driving away of sorrow and encreasing the joy of the minde.... The leaves and floures put into wine make men and women glad and merry and drive away all sadnesse, dulnesse and melancholy.”

Of bugloss he says: “The physitions use the leaves, floures and rootes and put them into all kindes of medecines indifferently, which are of force and vertue to drive away sorrow and pensiveness of the minde, and to comfort and strengthen the heart.”

Rosemary was held of such sovereign virtue in this respect that even the wearing of it was believed to be remedial. “If a garland thereof be put about the head, it comforteth the brain, the memorie, the inward senses and comforteth the heart and maketh it merry.” Certain herbs strewed about the room were supposed to promote happiness and content. Meadowsweet, water-mint and vervain (one of the three herbs held most sacred by the Druids) were those most frequently used for this purpose.

“The savor or smell of the water-mint rejoyceth the heart of man, for which cause they use to strew it in chambers and places of recreation, pleasure and repose, where feasts and banquets are made.”

“The leaves and floures of meadowsweet farre excelle all other strowing herbs for to decke up houses, to strawe in chambers, halls and banqueting houses in the summertime, for the smell thereof makes the heart merrie and joyful and delighteth the senses.”

In connection with vervain he quotes Pliny’s saying that “if the dining room be sprinckled with water in which the herbe hath been steeped the guests will be the merrier.”

Scattered through the Herbal we find recipes for the cure of many other ailments with which modern science does not attempt to cope. For instance, under “peony” we read: “The black graines (that is the seed) to the number of fifteene taken in wine or mead is a speciall remedie for those that are troubled in the night with the disease called the Night Mare, which is as though a heavy burthen were laid upon them and they oppressed therewith, as if they were overcome with their enemies, or overprest with some great weight or burthen, and they are also good against melancholie dreames.” Under Solomon’s seal one lights on this: “The root stamped while it is fresh and greene and applied taketh away in one night or two at the most any bruise, black or blew spots, gotten by falls or women’s wilfulnesse in stumbling upon their hasty husbands’ fists or such like.” Of cow parsnip he tells us: “If a phrenticke or melancholicke man’s head bee anointed with oile wherein the leaves and roots have been sodden, it helpeth him very much, and such as bee troubled with the sickness called the forgetfull evill.” Would any modern have either the courage or the imagination to attempt to cure “the forgetfull evill”? In the old Saxon herbals the belief in the efficacy of herbs used as amulets is a marked feature, and even in Gerard’s Herbal much of this old belief survives. “A garland of pennyroyal,” he tells us, “made and worne about the head is of a great force against the swimming in the head, the paines and giddiness thereof.” The root of spatling poppy “being pound with the leaves and floures cureth the stinging of scorpions and such like venemous beasts: insomuch that whoso doth hold the same in his hand can receive no damage or hurt by any venemous beast.” Of shrubby trefoil we learn that “if a man hold it in his hand he cannot be hurt with the biting of any venemous beast.” Of rue he says: “If a man be anointed with the juice of rue, the poison of wolf’s bane, mushrooms or todestooles, the biting of serpents, stinging of scorpions, spiders, bees, hornets and wasps will not hurt him.” In the older herbals numerous herbs are mentioned as being of special virtue when used as amulets to protect the wayfaring man from weariness, but Gerard mentions only two—mugwort and Agnus castus. He quotes the authority of Pliny for the belief that “the traveller or wayfaring man that hath mugwort tied about him feeleth no wearisomeness at all and he who hath it about him can be hurt by no poysonous medecines, nor by any wilde beaste, neither yet by the Sun itselfe.” Of Agnus castus he writes: “It is reported that if such as journey or travell do carry with them a branch or rod of agnus castus in their hand, it will keep them from weariness.” The herbs most in repute as amulets against misfortune generally were angelica (of sovereign virtue against witchcraft and enchantments) and figwort, which was “hanged about the necke” to keep the wearer in health. At times one feels that Gerard rather doubted the efficacy of these “physick charms,” and he gives us a naïve description of his friends’ efforts to cure him of an ague by their means.