CHAPTER II. SHAKESPEARE.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel)
“Set ratsbane by his porridge.”[16]
“I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop it with security.”[17]
“I would the milk Thy mother gave thee, when thou suck’dst her breast, Had been a little ratsbane for my sake.”[18]
Ratsbane, mentioned in the three preceding quotations, was an old name for arsenic, which in Shakespeare’s time was commonly used for poisoning rats, hence the name.
“I have bought the oil, the balsamum, and aqua vitæ,”[19]
says Dromio of Syracuse. These were the medical comforts for the barque of Epidamnum, and show that sailing vessels in those days carried a certain amount of medicine. The oil may have been one of the many panaceas of the time for “purging the body of bile or humour,” while balsams there were by the score, of Hungary, and aromatics for “wind and pain”. The aqua vitæ alluded to was probably brandy, which would serve to keep the courage of the voyagers up and the cold out.
Proteus, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, exclaims:—
“When I was sick you gave me bitter pills; And I must minister like to you”.[20]
In Lucrece the bard shows he knew something of the counteracting effects of certain drugs from the following lines:—
“The poisonous simple sometimes is compacted In a pure compound; being so applied, His venom in effect is purified”.[21]
“King Henry.
The united vessel of their blood,
Mingled with venom of suggestion,
As, for a purpose, the age will pour it in,
Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
As aconitum or rash gunpowder.”[22]
The aconite or monkshood, formerly called wolf’s bane, gives us one of the most powerful vegetable poisons, its properties having long been known and employed in medical practice. It was used by the early Greeks and Romans, and is probably even of still greater antiquity. On account of its rapid and deadly action, Shakespeare compares it to gunpowder. Some commentators are of the opinion that aconite was the poison sold by the apothecary to the lovesick Romeo.
A curious old tradition is alluded to by Falstaff when speaking of the chamomile, in the following sentence:—
“Though the camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears”.[23]
The chamomile has an ancient reputation for its medicinal properties as a stomachic and febrifuge.
Its growth is said to be improved by being pressed or trampled into the earth.
“Shallow. Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year’s pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of caraways and so forth.”[24]
Carraway seeds were very largely used in Shakespeare’s time as a spice and condiment. The essential oil they yield has carminative properties. The seeds were often served with roast apples, a custom still said to be kept up at Trinity College, Cambridge.
“Iago. The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.”[25]
The coloquintida mentioned, is the old name for colocynth, a drug largely used in medicine at the present time. It was employed by the Greek and Roman physicians as a purgative, and was known in Britain as early as the eleventh century. It has a drastic, bitter taste, and is commonly known as bitter apple.
Shakespeare makes several allusions to the elder, a tree concerning which there are many old traditions. One of them will suffice.
“Holofernes.
Begin, sir, you are my elder.
“Biron.
Well followed; Judas was hanged on an elder.”[26]
The sambucus nigra, or black elder, has long been used in medicine as a discutient, yet tradition gives it an evil name. Judas was supposed to have hanged himself on an elder tree, which doubtless brought it into disrepute, although its flowers distilled with water make an excellent cosmetic.
“Ophelia.
There’s fennel for you and columbines.”[27]
This herb was greatly valued by the old apothecaries, and was known also to the ancients. There was an old belief that the fennel in flower predicted an early summer. Its chief use now is as a flavouring agent.
Several allusions are also made to ginger.
“Clown. I must have saffron to colour the warden pies; mace; dates—none, that’s out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger, but that I beg.”[28]
Ginger was known and used by the Greeks and Romans as a spice, and was esteemed by physicians in England at the time of the Norman Conquest. Its hot, burning taste is due to a resinous principle contained in the root, and is still used in medicine.
The mandrake or mandragora is frequently mentioned in the plays. Thus says
“Iago.
Not poppy, nor mandragora,