The Bride's Burial—Roxburghe Ballads.

The Cork tree is a necessary element in all botanic gardens, but as an ornamental tree it is not sufficiently distinct from the Ilex. Though a native of the South of Europe it is hardy in England.

CORN.

(1)Gonzalo.No use of metal, Corn, or wine, or oil.
Tempest, act ii, sc. 1 (154).
(2)Duke.Our Corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.
Measure for Measure, act iv, sc. 1 (76).
(3)Titania.Playing on pipes of Corn, (67)
* * * * *
The green Corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.
Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 1 (94).
(4)K. Edward.What valiant foemen, like to autumn's Corn,
Have we mowed down in tops of all their pride!
3rd Henry VI, act v, sc. 7 (3).
(5)Pucelle.Talk like the vulgar sort of market men
That come to gather money for their Corn.
1st Henry VI, act iii, sc. 2 (4).
Poor market folks that come to sell their Corn.
Ibid. (14).
Good morrow, gallants! want ye Corn for bread?
Ibid. (41).
Burgundy.I trust, ere long, to choke thee with thine own,
And make thee curse the harvest of that Corn.
Ibid. (46).
(6)Duchess.Why droops my lord like over-ripened Corn
Hanging the head at Ceres' plenteous load?
2nd Henry VI, act i, sc. 2. (1).
(7)Warwick.His well-proportioned beard made rough and ragged
Like to the summer's Corn by tempest lodged.
2nd Henry VI, act iii, sc. 2 (175).
(8)Mowbray.We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind
That even our Corn shall seem as light as chaff.
2nd Henry IV, act iv, sc. 1 (194).
(9)Macbeth.Though bladed Corn be lodged and trees blown down.
Macbeth, act iv, sc. 1 (55).
(10)Longaville.He weeds the Corn, and still lets grow the weeding.
Love's Labour's Lost, act i, sc. 1 (96).
(11)Biron.Allons! allons! sowed Cockle reap'd no Corn.
Ibid., act iv, sc 3 (383).
(12)Edgar.Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
Thy sheep be in the Corn.
King Lear, act iii, sc. 6 (43).
(13)Cordelia.All the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining Corn.
Ibid., act iv, sc. 4 (6).
(14)Demetrius.First thrash the Corn, then after burn the straw.
Titus Andronicus, act ii, sc. 3 (123).
(15)Marcus.O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered Corn into one mutual sheaf.
Ibid., act v, sc. 3(70).
(16)Pericles.Our ships are stored with Corn to make your needy bread.
Pericles, act i, sc. 4 (95).
(17)Cleon.Your grace that fed my country with your Corn.
Ibid., act iii, sc. 3 (18).
(18)Menenius.For Corn at their own rates.
Coriolanus, act i, sc. 1 (193).
Marcus.The gods sent not Corn for the rich men only.
Ibid. (211).
Marcus.The Volsces have much Corn.
Ibid. (253).
Citizen.We stood up about the Corn.
Ibid., act ii, sc. 3 (16).
Brutus.Corn was given them gratis.
Ibid., act iii, sc. 1 (43).
Coriolanus.Tell me of Corn!
Ibid. (61).
The Corn of the storehouse gratis.
Ibid. (125).
The Corn was not our recompense.
Ibid. (120).
This kind of service
Did not deserve Corn gratis.
Coriolanus, act iii, sc. 1 (124).
(19)Cranmer.I am right glad to catch this good occasion
Most thoroughly to be winnow'd, where my chaff
And Corn shall fly asunder.
Henry VIII, act v, sc. 1 (110).
(20)Cranmer.Her foes shake like a field of beaten Corn
And hang their heads with sorrow.
Ibid., act v, sc. 4 (32).
(21)K. Richard.We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer Corn.
Richard II, act iii, sc. 3 (161).
(22)Arcite.And run
Swifter then winde upon a field of Corne
(Curling the wealthy eares) never flew.
Two Noble Kinsmen, act ii, sc. 3 (91).
(23) As Corn o'ergrown by weeds, so heedful fear
Is almost choked by unresisted lust.
Lucrece (281).

I have made these quotations as short as possible. They could not be omitted, but they require no comment.

COWSLIP.

(1)Burgundy.The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover.
Henry V, act v, sc. 2 (48).
(2)Queen.The Violets, Cowslips, and the Primroses,
Bear to my closet.
Cymbeline, act i, sc. 5 (83).
(3)Iachimo.On her left breast
A mole, cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I' the bottom of a Cowslip.
Ibid., act ii, sc. 2 (37).
(4)Ariel.Where the bee sucks there suck I,
In a Cowslip's bell I lie.
Tempest, act v, sc. 1 (88).
(5)Thisbe.Those yellow Cowslip cheeks.
Midsummer Night's Dream, act v, sc. 1 (339).
(6)Fairy.The Cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every Cowslip's ear.
Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 1 (10).[65:1]

"Cowslips! how the children love them, and go out into the fields on the sunny April mornings to collect them in their little baskets, and then come home and pick the pips to make sweet unintoxicating wine, preserving at the same time untouched a bunch of the goodliest flowers as a harvest-sheaf of beauty! and then the white soft husks are gathered into balls and tossed from hand to hand till they drop to pieces, to be trodden upon and forgotten. And so at last, when each sense has had its fill of the flower, and they are thoroughly tired of their play, the children rest from their celebration of the Cowslip. Blessed are such flowers that appeal to every sense." So wrote Dr. Forbes Watson in his very pretty and Ruskinesque little work "Flowers and Gardens," and the passage well expresses one of the chief charms of the Cowslip. It is the most favourite wild flower with children. It must have been also a favourite with Shakespeare, for his descriptions show that he had studied it with affection. The minute description in ([6]) should be noticed. The upright golden Cowslip is compared to one of Queen Elizabeth's Pensioners, who were splendidly dressed, and are frequently noticed in the literature of the day. With Mrs. Quickly they were the ne plus ultra of grandeur—"And yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners" ("Merry Wives," act ii, sc. 2). Milton, too, sings in its praise—