[256:1] Grace was symbolized by the Rue, or Herb of Grace, and remembrance by the Rosemary.
RUE.
| (1) | Perdita. | For you there's Rosemary and Rue. |
| Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 4 (74). (See Rosemary, No. [1].) | ||
| (2) | Gardener. | Here did she fall a tear; here in this place I'll set a bank of Rue, sour Herb of Grace: Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall beseen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen. |
| Richard II, act iii, sc. 4 (104). | ||
| (3) | Antony. | Grace grow where these drops fall. |
| Antony and Cleopatra, act iv, sc. 2 (38). | ||
| (4) | Ophelia. | There's Rue for you; and here's some for me:we may call it Herb-grace o' Sundays: O, youmust wear your Rue with a difference. |
| Hamlet, act iv, sc. 5 (181). | ||
| (5) | Clown. | Indeed, sir, she was the Sweet Marjoram of thesalad, or rather the Herb of Grace. |
| Lafeu. | They are not salad-herbs, you knave, they arenose-herbs. | |
| All's Well that Ends Well, act iv, sc. 5 (17). | ||
Comparing ([2]) and ([3]) together, there is little doubt that the same herb is alluded to in both; and it is, perhaps, alluded to, though not exactly named, in the following:
| Friar Laurence. | In man, as well as herbs, grace and rude will. | |
| Romeo and Juliet, act ii, sc. 3 (28). | ||
Shakespeare thus gives us the two names for the same plant, Rue and Herb of Grace, and though at first sight there seems to be little or no connection between the two names, yet really they are so closely connected, that the one name was derived from, or rather suggested by, the other. Rue is the English form of the Greek and Latin ruta, a word which has never been explained, and in its earlier English form of rude came still nearer to the Latin original. But ruth was the English word for sorrow and remorse, and to rue was to be sorry for anything, or to have pity;[260:1] we still say a man will rue a particular action, i.e., be sorry for it; and so it was a natural thing to say that a plant which was so bitter, and had always borne the name Rue or Ruth, must be connected with repentance. It was, therefore, the Herb of Repentance, and this was soon transformed into the Herb of Grace (in 1838 Loudon said, "It is to this day called Ave Grace in Sussex"), repentance being the chief sign of grace; and it is not unlikely that this idea was strengthened by the connection of Rue with the bitter herbs of the Bible, though it is only once mentioned, and then with no special remark, except as a tithable garden herb, together with Anise and Cummin.
The Rue, like Lavender and Rosemary, is a native of the more barren parts of the coasts of the Mediterranean, and has been found on Mount Tabor, but it was one of the earliest occupants of the English Herb garden. It is very frequently mentioned in the Saxon Leech Books, and entered so largely into their prescriptions that it must have been very extensively grown. Its strong aromatic smell,[261:1] and bitter taste, with the blistering quality of the leaves, soon established its character as almost a heal-all.
"Rew bitter a worthy gres (herb)
Mekyl of myth and vertu is."
Stockholm MS., 1305.