| (1) | Ophelia. | There's Fennel for you and Columbines. |
| Hamlet, act iv, sc 5 (189). | ||
| (2) | Falstaff. | And a' plays at quoits well, and eats conger and Fennel. |
| 2nd Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4 (266). | ||
The Fennel was always a plant of high reputation. The Plain of Marathon was so named from the abundance of Fennel (μαραθρον) growing on it.[89:1] And like all strongly scented plants, it was supposed by the medical writers to abound in "virtues." Gower, describing the star Pleiades, says—
"Eke his herbe in speciall
The vertuous Fenel it is."
Conf. Aman., lib. sept. (3, 129. Paulli.)
These virtues cannot be told more pleasantly than by Longfellow—
"Above the lowly plants it towers,
The Fennel with its yellow flowers,
And in an earlier age than ours
Was gifted with the wondrous powers—
Lost vision to restore.
It gave men strength and fearless mood,
And gladiators fierce and rude
Mingled it with their daily food:
And he who battled and subdued
A wreath of Fennel wore."
"Yet the virtues of Fennel, as thus enumerated by Longfellow, do not comprise either of those attributes of the plant which illustrate the two passages from Shakespeare. The first alludes to it as an emblem of flattery, for which ample authority has been found by the commentators.[89:2] Florio is quoted for the phrase 'Dare finocchio,' to give fennel, as meaning to flatter. In the second quotation the allusion is to the reputation of Fennel as an inflammatory herb with much the same virtues as are attributed to Eringoes."—Mr. J. F. Marsh in The Garden.
The English name was directly derived from its Latin name Fœniculum, which may have been given it from its hay-like smell (fœnum), but this is not certain. We have another English word derived from the Giant Fennel of the South of Europe (ferula); this is the ferule, an instrument of punishment for small boys, also adopted from the Latin, the Roman schoolmaster using the stalks of the Fennel for the same purpose as the modern schoolmaster uses the cane.
The early poets looked on the Fennel as an emblem of the early summer—
"Hyt befell yn the month of June
When the Fenell hangeth yn toun."