[81.] “Musurgia Universalis.” 1650. p. 30.
[82.] Pied, that is parti-coloured, of different hues. So in The Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 3:—
“That all the yeanlings (i.e. young lambs) which were streaked and pied.”
And in The Tempest, Caliban, alluding to the parti-coloured dress which Trinculo, as a jester, wore, says:—
“What a pied ninny’s this.”
Milton, in “L’allegro,” speaks of “meadows trim with daisies pied.”
[83.] “Lady-smocks” (Cardamine pratensis), a common meadow plant appearing early in the spring, and bearing white flowers. Sir J. E. Smith says they cover the meadows as with linen bleaching, whence the name of “ladysmocks” is supposed to come. Some authors say it first flowers about Ladytide, or the Feast of the Annunciation, hence its name.
[84.] Botanists are not agreed as to the particular plant intended by “cuckoo-buds.” Miller, in his “Gardener’s Dictionary,” says the flower here alluded to is the Ranunculus bulbosus. One commentator on this passage has mistaken the Lychnis flos cuculi, or “cuckoo-flower” for “cuckoo-buds.” Another writer says, “cuckoo-flower” must be wrong, and believes “cowslip-buds” the true reading, but this is clearly a mistake. Walley, the editor of Ben Jonson’s Works, proposes to read “crocus-buds,” which is likewise incorrect. Sidney Beisley, the author of “Shakespeare’s Garden,” thinks that Shakespeare referred to the lesser celandine, or pilewort (Ranunculus ficaria), as this flower appears early in Spring, and is in bloom at the same time as the other flowers named in the song.
[85.] See Chambers’s “Book of Days,” i. 531.
[86.] The “cresset-light” was a large lanthorn placed upon a long pole, and carried upon men’s shoulders. (See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” Introduction.)