[303:2] See Preface to "Palladius on Husbandrie," p. viii. (Early English Text Society), for a further account of old English Vineyards.
[303:3] For a very interesting account of the formation of lynches, and their connection with the ancient communal cultivation of the soil see Seebohm's "English Village Community," p. 5.
[304:1] On this Vineyard Mr. Skrine, the present owner of Claverton, has kindly informed me that it was sold in 1701 by Mr. Richard Holder for £21,367, of which £28 was for "four hogsheads of wine of the Vineyards of Claverton."
[304:2] Andrew Boorde was evidently a lover of good wine, and his account is: "This I do say that all the kingdoms of the world have not so many sundry kindes of wine as we in England, and yet there is nothing to make of."—Breviary of Health, 1598.
VIOLETS.
| (1) | Queen. | The Violets, Cowslips, and the Primroses, Bear to my closet. |
| Cymbeline, act i, sc. 5 (83). | ||
| (2) | Angelo. | It is I, That, lying by the Violet in the sun, Do as the carrion does, not as the flower, Corrupt with virtuous season. |
| Measure for Measure, act ii, sc. 2 (165). | ||
| (3) | Oberon. | Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows. |
| Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 1 (250). | ||
| (4) | Salisbury. | To gild refined gold, to paint the Lily, To throw a perfume on the Violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of Heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. |
| King John, act iv, sc. 2 (11). | ||
| (5) | K. Henry. | I think the king is but a man, as I am; the Violet smells to him as it doth to me. |
| Henry V, act iv, sc. 1 (105). | ||
| (6) | Laertes. | A Violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent; sweet, not lasting. The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more. |
| Hamlet, act i, sc. 3 (7). | ||
| (7) | Ophelia. | I would give you some Violets, but they witheredall when my father died. |
| Ibid., act iv, sc. 5 (184). | ||
| (8) | Laertes. | Lay her i' the earth, And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May Violets spring! |
| Ibid., act v, sc. 1 (261). | ||
| (9) | Belarius. | They are as gentle As zephyrs blowing below the Violet, Not wagging his sweet head. |
| Cymbeline, act iv, sc. 2 (171). | ||
| (10) | Duke. | That strain again! It had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of Violets, Stealing and giving odour! |
| Twelfth Night, act i, sc. 1 (4). | ||
| (11) | Song of Spring. | When Daisies pied, and Violets blue, &c. |
| Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (904). (See [Cuckoo-buds].) | ||
| (12) | Perdita. | Violets dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes Or Cytherea's breath. |
| Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 4 (120). | ||
| (13) | Duchess. | Welcome, my son; Who are the Violets now, That strew the green lap of the new-come spring? |
| Richard II, act v, sc. 2 (46). | ||
| (14) | Marina. | The yellows, blues, The purple Violets and Marigolds, Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave While summer-days do last. |
| Pericles, act iv, sc. 1 (16). | ||
| (15) | These blue-veined Violets whereon we lean Never can blab, nor know not what we mean. | |
| Venus and Adonis (125). | ||
| (16) | Who when he lived, his breath and beauty set Gloss on the Rose, smell to the Violet. | |
| Ibid. (936). | ||
| (17) | When I behold the Violet past prime, And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white, | |
| * * * * * | ||
| Then of thy beauty do I question make, That thou among the wastes of time must go, Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake And die as fast as they see others grow. | ||
| Sonnet xii. | ||
| (18) | The forward Violet thus did I chide: "Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, If not from my love's breath? The purple pride Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells In my love's veins thou hast too grossly died." | |
| Ibid. xcix. | ||
There are about a hundred different species of Violets, of which there are five species in England, and a few sub-species. One of these is the Viola tricolor, from which is descended the Pansy, or Love-in-Idleness (see [Pansy]). But in all the passages in which Shakespeare names the Violet, he alludes to the purple sweet-scented Violet, of which he was evidently very fond, and which is said to be very abundant in the neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon. For all the eighteen passages tell of some point of beauty or sweetness that attracted him. And so it is with all the poets from Chaucer downwards—the Violet is noticed by all, and by all with affectation. I need only mention two of the greatest. Milton gave the Violet a chief place in the beauties of the "Blissful Bower" of our first parents in Paradise—
"Each beauteous flower,
Iris all hues, Roses, and Jessamin
Rear'd high their flourish't heads between, and wrought
Mosaic; underfoot the Violet,
Crocus and Hyacinth with rich inlay
Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone
Of costliest emblem;"
Paradise Lost, book iv.