"And Alder next was the freshe quene,
I mean Alceste, the noble true wife,
And for Admete howe she lost her life,
And for her trouthe, if I shall not lye,
How she was turned into a Daysye."
We next come to Spenser. In the "Muiopotmos," he gives a list of flowers that the butterfly frequents, with most descriptive epithets to each flower most happily chosen. Among the flowers are—
"The Roses raigning in the pride of May,
Sharp Isope good for greene woundes' remedies,
Faire Marigoldes, and bees-alluring Thyme,
Sweet Marjoram, and Daysies decking prime."
By "decking prime" he means they are the ornament of the morning.[366:1] Again he introduces the Daisy in a stanza of much beauty, that commences the June Eclogue of the "Shepherd's Calendar."
"Lo! Colin, here the place whose pleasaunt syte
From other shades hath weand my wandring minde.
Tell me, what wants me here to work delyte?
The simple ayre, the gentle warbling winde,
So calm, so cool, as no where else I finde;
The Grassie ground, with daintie Daysies dight;
The Bramble bush, where byrdes of every kinde
To the waters' fall their tunes attemper right."
From Spenser we come to Shakespeare, and when we remember the vast acquaintance with flowers of every kind that he shows, and especially when we remember how often he almost seems to go out of his way to tell of the simple wild flowers of England, it is surprising that the Daisy is almost passed over entirely by him. Here are the passages in which he names the flowers. First, in the poem of the "Rape of Lucrece," he has a very pretty picture of Lucrece as she lay asleep—
"Without the bed her other faire hand was
On the green coverlet, whose perfect white
Showed like an April Daisy on the Grass."
In "Love's Labour's Lost" is the song of Spring, beginning—
"When Daisies pied, and Violets blue;
And Lady-smocks all silver-white,
And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight."
In "Hamlet" Daisies are twice mentioned in connection with Ophelia in her madness. "There's a Daisy!" she said, as she distributed her flowers; but she made no comment on the Daisy as she did on her other flowers. And, in the description of her death, the Queen tells us that—