Before CHAPTER III. SPENSER.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel)
“Ophelia. There’s rue for you; and here’s some for me: we may call it herb grace o’ Sundays: O, you must wear your rue with a difference.”[34]
Some curious traditions are attached to rue, or, as it was formerly called, the herb of grace, probably on account of its being often worn as an amulet to ward off disease, and also used by the old Romanists in the exorcisms. It has ever been regarded as a symbol of sorrow or pity, as its name implies. The word is probably derived from the same root as Ruth, meaning sorrow and remorse, while “to rue” was to be sorry for.
In ancient times it was supposed to be useful for almost every disease, its properties being due to an essential oil still used in pharmacy.
It was largely employed in affections of the eye and for its antiseptic properties as a preservative to ward off decay.
The plant is not a native of England, but has been cultivated in this country for more than 800 years, and was extensively grown in the old herb gardens.
Euphrasie and rue were often used together as a curative application for the eyes. In Paradise Lost Milton says:—
“Then purged with euphrasie and rue The visual nerve, for he has much to see”.
Rue was employed also to take away warts, the freshly cut stem being rubbed over the excrescence, and the following couplet repeated:—
“Ashen true, ashen tree, Pray bury these warts of me”.
Another old rhyme runs:—
“What savour is better, if physicke be true For places infected than wormwood or rue”.
“Clown. I must have saffron to colour the warden pies.”[35]
Saffron was formerly much prized as a medicine, a condiment, and a dye. It is said to have been introduced into England in the reign of Edward III., and was cultivated in the neighbourhood of Walden, in Essex, to which it gave its name. The quality of English saffron was renowned in Shakspeare’s time. It was used by the monks in mediæval days in illuminating their missals, and dyeing materials, as well as being esteemed as a febrifuge and cordial.
“Macbeth.
What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug
Would scour these English hence?”[36]
The well-known purgative properties of senna leaves were held in great repute by the old apothecaries. The drug was introduced into Europe about the ninth or tenth century by the Arabs, and it soon attained a reputable position in medical practice. The best variety was originally supposed to have been brought from Mecca.
“Rosaline. To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain.”[37]
Wormwood has always had a high reputation as a medicine, and was chiefly used as a tonic. It yields an essential oil with an extremely bitter taste, which is yet largely used in France in the manufacture of absinthe.
In one of his Sonnets, Shakespeare alludes to the old alembic of the alchemist in the following lines:—
“What potions have I drunk of Syren tears, Distill’d from limbecks foul as hell within”.
And in the following verse he deals with some theories of medical treatment:—
“Like as to make our appetites more keen, With eager compounds we our palate urge; As, to prevent our maladies unseen, We sicken to shun sickness when we purge: Even so, being full of your ne’er-cloying sweetness, To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding, And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness To be diseas’d, ere that there was true needing. Thus policy in love, to anticipate The ills that were not, grew to faults assur’d, And brought to medicine a healthful state Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur’d. But thence I learn, and find the lesson true, Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.”[38]