The Shakespeare Garden

THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN




[Illustration: STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, NEW PLACE, BORDER OF ANNUALS]




                          THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN
                          BY ESTHER SINGLETON
                          WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
                          FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
                          AND REPRODUCTIONS OF
                          OLD WOOD CUTS

                          [Illustration]

                          PUBLISHED BY THE CENTURY CO.
                          NEW YORK     M CM XX II




                          Copyright, 1922, by
                            THE CENTURY CO.


                          Printed in U. S. A.




                           TO THE MEMORY OF
                               MY MOTHER
             WHOSE RARE ARTISTIC TASTES AND WHOSE CULTURED
          INTELLECT LED ME IN EARLY YEARS TO THE APPRECIATION
                 OF SHAKESPEARE AND ALL MANIFESTATIONS
                    OF BEAUTY IN LITERATURE AND ART




PREFACE


In adding another book to the enormous number of works on Shakespeare,
I beg indulgence for a few words of explanation.

Having been for many years an ardent and a devoted student of
Shakespeare, I discovered long ago that there was no adequate book
on the Elizabethan garden and the condition of horticulture in
Shakespeare's time. Every Shakespeare student knows how frequently
and with what subtle appreciation Shakespeare speaks of flowers.
Shakespeare loved all the simple blossoms that "paint the meadows
with delight": he loved the mossy banks in the forest carpeted with
wild thyme and "nodding violets" and o'er-canopied with eglantine and
honeysuckle; he loved the cowslips in their gold coats spotted with
rubies, "the azured harebells" and the "daffodils that come before
the swallow dares"; he loved the "winking mary-buds," or marigolds,
that "ope their golden eyes" in the first beams of the morning sun; he
loved the stately flowers of stately gardens--the delicious musk-rose,
"lilies of all kinds," and the flower-de-luce; and he loved all the
new "outlandish" flowers, such as the crown-imperial just introduced
from Constantinople and "lark's heels trim" from the West Indies.

Shakespeare no doubt visited Master Tuggie's garden at Westminster, in
which Ralph Tuggie and later his widow, "Mistress Tuggie," specialized
in carnations and gilliflowers, and the gardens of Gerard, Parkinson,
Lord Zouche, and Lord Burleigh. In addition to these, he knew the
gardens of the fine estates in Warwickshire and the simple cottage
gardens, such as charm the American visitor in rural England. When
Shakespeare calls for a garden scene, as he does in "Twelfth Night,"
"Romeo and Juliet," and "King Richard II," it is the "stately garden"
that he has in his mind's eye, the finest type of a Tudor garden, with
terraces, "knots," and arbors. In "Love's Labour's Lost" is mentioned
the "curious knotted garden."

Realizing the importance of reproducing an accurate representation of
the garden of Shakespeare's time the authorities at Stratford-upon-Avon
have recently rearranged "the garden" of Shakespeare's birthplace; and
the flowers of each season succeed each other in the proper "knots"
and in the true Elizabethan atmosphere. Of recent years it has been a
fad among American garden lovers to set apart a little space for a
"Shakespeare garden," where a few old-fashioned English flowers are
planted in beds of somewhat formal arrangement. These gardens are not,
however, by any means replicas of the simple garden of Shakespeare's
time, or of the stately garden as worked out by the skilful
Elizabethans.

It is my hope, therefore, that this book will help those who desire a
perfect Shakespeare garden, besides giving Shakespeare lovers a new
idea of the gardens and flowers of Shakespeare's time.

Part One is devoted to the history and evolution of the small enclosed
garden within the walls of the medieval castle into the Garden of
Delight which Parkinson describes; the Elizabethan garden, the
herbalists and horticulturists; and the new "outlandish" flowers. Part
Two describes the flowers mentioned by Shakespeare and much quaint
flower lore. Part Three is devoted to technical hints, instruction and
practical suggestions for making a correct Shakespeare garden.

Shakespeare does not mention all the flowers that were familiar in
his day, and, therefore, I have described in detail only those spoken
of in his plays. I have chosen only the varieties that were known to
Shakespeare; and in a Shakespeare garden only such specimens should
be planted. For example, it would be an anachronism to grow the
superb modern pansies, for the "pansy freaked with jet," as Milton so
beautifully calls it, is the tiny heartsease, or "johnny-jump-up."

On the other hand, the carnations (or "sops-in-wine") and gilliflowers
were highly developed in Shakespeare's day and existed