FILBERTS.
| Caliban. | I'll bring thee to clustering Filberds. | |
| Tempest, act ii, sc. 2(174). (See [Hazel].) | ||
FLAGS.
| Cæsar. | This common body Like to a vagabond Flag upon the stream Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion. | |
| Antony and Cleopatra, act i, sc. 4 (44). | ||
We now commonly call the Iris a Flag, and in Shakespeare's time the Iris pseudoacorus was called the Water Flag, and so this passage might, perhaps, have been placed under Flower-de-luce. But I do not think that the Flower-de-luce proper was ever called a Flag at that time, whereas we know that many plants, especially the Reeds and Bulrushes, were called in a general way Flags. This is the case in the Bible, the language of which is always a safe guide in the interpretation of contemporary literature. The mother of Moses having placed the infant in the ark of Bulrushes, "laid it in the Flags by the river's brink," and the daughter of Pharaoh "saw the ark among the Flags." Job asks, "Can the Flag grow without water?" and Isaiah draws the picture of desolation when "the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up, and the Reeds and the Flags shall wither." But in these passages, not only is the original word very loosely translated, but the original word itself was so loosely used that long ago Jerome had said it might mean any marsh plant, quidquid in palude virens nascitur. And in the same way I conclude that when Shakespeare named the Flag he meant any long-leaved waterside plant that is swayed to and fro by the stream, and that therefore this passage might very properly have been placed under Rushes.
FLAX.
| (1) | Ford. | What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of Flax? |
| Merry Wives, act v, sc. 5 (159). | ||
| (2) | Clifford. | Beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and Flax. |
| 2nd Henry VI, act v, sc. 2 (54). | ||
| (3) | Sir Toby. | Excellent; it hangs like Flax in a distaff. |
| Twelfth Night, act i, sc. 3 (108). | ||
| (4) | 3rd Servant. | Go thou: I'll fetch some Flax and white of eggs To apply to his bleeding face.[95:1] |
| King Lear, act iii, sc. 7 (106). | ||
| (5) | Ophelia. | His beard was as white as snow, All Flaxen was his poll. |
| Hamlet, act iv, sc. 5 (195). | ||
| (6) | Leontes. | My wife deserves a name As rank as any Flax-wench. |
| Winter's Tale, act i, sc. 2 (276). | ||
| (7) | Emilia. | It could No more be hid in him, than fire in Flax. |
| Two Noble Kinsmen, act v, sc. 3 (113). | ||
The Flax of commerce (Linum usitatissimum) is not a true native, though Turner said: "I have seen flax or lynt growyng wilde in Sommerset shyre" ("Herbal," part ii. p. 39); but it takes kindly to the soil, and soon becomes naturalized in the neighbourhood of any Flax field or mill. We have, however, three native Flaxes in England, of which the smallest, the Fairy Flax (L. catharticum), is one of the most graceful ornaments of our higher downs and hills.[96:1] The Flax of commerce, which is the plant referred to by Shakespeare, is supposed to be a native of Egypt, and we have early notice of it in the Book of Exodus; and the microscope has shown that the cere-cloths of the most ancient Egyptian mummies are made of linen. It was very early introduced into England, and the spinning of Flax was the regular occupation of the women of every household, from the mistress downwards, so that even queens are represented in the old illuminations in the act of spinning, and "the spinning-wheel was a necessary implement in every household, from the palace to the cottage."—Wright, Domestic Manners. The occupation is now almost gone, driven out by machinery, but it has left its mark on our language, at least on our legal language, which acknowledges as the only designation of an unmarried woman that she is "a spinster."