"And tho that weare chaplets on their hede
Of fresh Woodbine, be such as never were
To love untrue in word, thought, ne dede,
But aye stedfast; ne for pleasaunce ne fere,
Though that they should their hertes al to-tere,
Would never flit, but ever were stedfast
Till that there lives there asunder brast."
The Flower and the Leaf.
The two last lines well describe the fast union between the Honeysuckle and its mated tree.
FOOTNOTES:
"Woodbines of sweet honey full."
Beaumont and Fletcher, Tragedy of Valentinian.
[126:2] Milton probably took the idea from Theocritus—
"Ivy reaches up and climbs,
Gilded with blossom-dust about its lip;
Round which a Woodbine wreathes itself, and flaunts
Her saffron fruitage."—Idyll i. (Calverley).