The Loyal Lover.
There stood a gardener at the gate
And in each hand a flower,
O pretty maid, come in, he said,
And view my beauteous bower.
The lily it shall be thy smock,
The jonquil shoe thy feet,
Thy gown shall be the ten-week-stock,
To make thee fair and sweet.
The gilly-flower shall deck thy head
Thy way with herbs, I’ll strew,
Thy stockings shall be marigold
Thy gloves the vi’let blue.
Dead Maid’s Land.
Gillyflowers are, of course, now excluded from the herb-border, but once housewives infused them in vinegar to make it aromatic, and candied them for conserves, and numbered them among their herbs, though that is not the reason that they are mentioned here. They have their place, because the general ideas about them are too pretty to leave out. First, they were the token of gentleness, as Robinson’s lover asserts most touchingly, and Drayton confirms in his line,
The July-flower declares his gentleness.
Then Gillyflowers (says Folkard) were represented in some old songs to be one of the flowers that grow in Paradise. He quotes from a ballad called “Dead Men’s Songs.” This verse:
The fields about the city faire
Were all with Roses set,
Gillyflowers and Carnations faire
Which canker could not fret.
Ancient Songs.—Ritson.