From the poverty of Turkish history, little is known of the early use of the Rose among them. We have, however, some account of its use among the Mohammedan Persians.
Although wine was forbidden by the laws of Mahomet, the Persians frequently made use of it; and in the time of Tavernier and of Chardin, they frequently drank it to excess. One of their kings, Soliman III., was intoxicated almost every day; and it was the custom then in Persia, to serve the wine in crystal decanters, which, when the season permitted, they corked with roses.
The most interesting purpose to which roses were devoted was the adornment of tombs and burial-places. The Greeks employed generally for this object, the myrtle and the amaranth; but the Romans gave the preference to the lily, the saffron-plant, and, above all, the Rose.
The ancients were careful to renew the plants which were placed around the sepulchral urn, in order that it might be surrounded by a continual spring. These flowers were regarded as sacred, and as a relic of the deceased.
The Romans considered this pious care so agreeable to the spirits of the departed, that wealthy citizens bequeathed by will entire gardens, to be reserved for furnishing their tombs with flowers. They also often ordered that their heirs, or those to whom they left a legacy for the care of their ashes, should meet together every year, on the anniversary of their death, and dine near their tomb, scattering roses about the place. This custom is attested by several stories of ancient Roman tombs. One with an ancient inscription was found at Ravenna, and others in some other parts of Italy.
D’Orbessan, in his “Essai sur les Roses,” mentions having seen, at Torcello, a city about five miles from Venice, an inscription of this kind, mentioning a donation made by an emancipated slave to the assembly of the Centum, consisting of gardens and a building to be employed in celebrating his obsequies and those of his master. It requested that roses should not be spared, and that food should be then distributed in abundance. Generally, the donation made on condition of covering the funeral monument with roses was transferred to another, if that condition was not fulfilled. Sometimes the most terrible maledictions threatened those who dared to violate these sacred gardens. That which proves how frequent among the Romans was this custom of ornamenting tombs with roses is, that those who were not rich enough to make such bequests often directed to be engraved upon the stone which covered their remains a request to the passers-by to scatter roses upon their tomb. Some of these stones still exist, with the following inscription: “Sparge, precor, Rosas supra mea busta, viator.” It was, perhaps, because they compared the short duration of human life to the quick fading existence of the Rose, that this flower was devoted to the burial-place of the dead; and there can certainly be chosen no more beautiful emblem of this transitory state of existence. This supposition is somewhat strengthened by the following passage from Jerome, one of the early Christian fathers:
“The ancients scattered roses over the urns of the deceased, and in their wills ordered that these flowers should adorn their graves, and should be renewed every year. It was also the custom for husbands to cast roses, violets, and lilies, on the urns which enclosed the ashes of their wives. These modest flowers were emblematic signs of their grief. Our Christians were content to place a Rose among the ornaments of their graves, as the image of life.”
In Turkey, females that died unmarried had a rose sculptured at the top of their monument.
At the well-known cemetery of Père la Chaise, which has often excited the ecstasy, admiration, or praise of many travelers, but which in reality exhibits neither elegance, sentiment, nor taste, wreaths of roses and other flowers are frequently seen upon the thickly crowded tombs, either as mementos of affection, or in compliance with a popular custom; while the street leading to the cemetery is filled with shops in which are exposed for sale the wreaths of flowers.
The prevalence of the same custom in Denmark is alluded to by Shakespeare, in Hamlet, in the scene of Ophelia’s burial.