I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose.[21]
Perdita, in "The Winter's Tale,"[22] mentions
Pale primroses that die unmarried
Ere they can behold bright Phœbus in his strength.
Shakespeare appreciated the delicate hue and perfume of this flower. He seems to be alluding to both qualities when he makes Hermia touch Helena's memory by the following words:
And in the wood, where often you and I
Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie.[23]
Other English poets speak of the flower as "the pale," or "the dim." Milton writes:
Now the bright star, day's harbinger
Comes dancing from the East and leads with her
The flow'ry May, who, from her green lap, throws
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.
And again, Thomas Carew:
Ask me why I send you here
The firstling of the infant year?
Ask me why I send to you
This Primrose, all bepearled with dew?
I straight whisper in your ears:
The sweets of Love are wash'd with tears
Ask me why this flower doth show
So yellow, green and sickly, too?
Ask me why the stalk is weak
And, bending, yet it doth not break?
I will answer: these discover
What doubts and fears are in a lover.