I may finish the notice of the Holly by quoting two most remarkable uses of the tree mentioned by Parkinson: "With the flowers of Holly, saith Pliny from Pythagoras, water is made ice; and againe, a staffe of the tree throwne at any beast, although it fall short by his defect that threw it, will flye to him, as he lyeth still, by the speciall property of the tree." He may well add—"This I here relate that you may understand the fond and vain conceit of those times, which I would to God we were not in these dayes tainted withal."
FOOTNOTES:
[123:1] "Hulwur-tre (huluyr), hulmus, hulcus aut huscus."—Promptorium Parvulorum.
HOLY THISTLE.
| Margaret. | Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus,and lay it to your heart; it is the onlything for a qualm. | |
| Hero. | There thou prickest her with a Thistle. | |
| Beatrice. | Benedictus! Why Benedictus? You have somemoral in this Benedictus. | |
| Margaret. | Moral! No, by my troth, I have no moralmeaning: I meant plain Holy Thistle. | |
| Much Ado About Nothing, act iii, sc. 4 (73). | ||
The Carduus benedictus, or Blessed Thistle, is a handsome annual from the South of Europe, and obtained its name from its high reputation as a heal-all, being supposed even to cure the plague, which was the highest praise that could be given to a medicine in those days. It is mentioned in all the treatises on the Plague, and especially by Thomas Brasbridge, who, in 1578, published his "Poore Mans Jewell, that is to say, a Treatise of the Pestilence: vnto which is annexed a declaration of the vertues of the Hearbes Carduus Benedictus and Angelica." This little book Shakespeare may have seen; it speaks of the virtues of the "distilled" leaves: it says, "it helpeth the hart," "expelleth all poyson taken in at the mouth and other corruption that doth hurt and annoye the hart," and that "the juyce of it is outwardly applied to the bodie" ("lay it to your heart"), and concludes, "therefore I counsell all them that have Gardens to nourish it, that they may have it always to their own use, and the use of their neighbours that lacke it." The plant has long lost this high character.
