eton l rare ing 2 . n ~ cS Paste AP MONMNCDG he ql Shakes ar S Esther Pome bimmm tt tl hs. cheng ot ~~ tie etna p eee mingle tune” beets ss “nth \.. mmm : a ia a, ieee 4 Minar: i Be aD i) (et THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, NEW PLACE, BORDER OF ANNUALS THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN BY ESTHER SINGLETON & & WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRA- TIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND REPRODUCTIONS OF OLD WOOD CUTS & & & & PUBLISHED BY.THE .CENTURY .CO. NEW YORK & > M CM XX II Copyright, 1922, by THE CENTURY Co. ff B.90 Printed in U. S. A, OCT 23 ’22 © 01 A686462 at, Or V6. 15a 5 | To THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER WHOSE RARE ARTISTIC TASTES AND WHOSE CULTURED INTELLECT LED ME IN EARLY YEARS TO THE APPRE- CIATION 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 Eliza- bethan garden and the condition of horticulture in Shakespeare’s time. Every Shakespeare student knows how frequently and with what subtle appre- ciation Shakespeare speaks of flowers. Shakespeare loved all the simple blossoms that “paint the mead- ows with delight”: he loved the mossy banks in the forest carpeted with wild thyme and ‘nodding violets” and o’er-canopied with eglantine and honey- suckle; 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 Vii Vili PREFACE new “outlandish” flowers, such as the crown-impe- rial 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 Bur- leigh. 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 ac- curate 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 PREFACE 1X 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 rep- licas 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, be- sides 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 ‘“‘out- landish” flowers. Part Two describes the flowers mentioned by Shakespeare and much quaint flower lore. Part Three is devoted to technical hints, in- struction and practical suggestions for making a correct Shakespeare garden. Shakespeare does not mention all the flowers tha © were familiar in his day, and, therefore, I have de- scribed 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 x PREFACE such specimens should be planted. For example, it would be an anachronism to grow the superb mod- ern 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 in bewildering va- riety. We read of such specimens as the Orange Tawny Gilliflower, the Grandpére, the Lustie Gallant or Westminster, the Queen’s Gilliflower, the Dainty, the Fair Maid of Kent or Ruffling Robin, the Feathered Tawny, Master Bradshaw’s Dainty Lady, and Master Tuggie’s Princess, besides many other delightful names. “JT have carefully read every word in Parkinson’s huge volume, Paradisi in Sole; Paradisus Terres- tris (London, 1629), to select from his practical instructions to gardeners and also his charming bits of description. I need not apologize for quoting so frequently his intimate and loving characterizations of those flowers that are “nourished up in gardens.” Take, for example, the following description of the “Great Harwich”: PREFACE xi I take [says Parkinson] this goodly, great old English Carnation as a precedent for the description of all the rest, which for his beauty and stateliness is worthy of a prime place. It riseth up with a great, thick, round stalk divided into several branches, somewhat thickly set with joints, and at every joint two long, green (rather than whitish) leaves turning or winding two or three times round. The flowers stand at the tops of the stalks in long, great and round green husks, which are divided into five points, out of which rise many long and broad pointed leaves deeply jagged at the ends, set in order, round and comely, making a gallant, great double Flower of a deep carnation color almost red, spotted with many bluish spots and streaks, some greater and some lesser, of an excellent soft, sweet scent, neither too quick, as many others of these kinds are, nor yet too dull, and with two whitish crooked threads like horns in the middle. This kind never beareth many flowers, but as it is slow in growing, so in bearing, not to be often handled, which showeth a kind of stateliness fit to preserve the opinion of magnificence. It will amaze the reader, perhaps, to learn that horticulture was in such a high state of development. Some wealthy London merchants and noblemen, Nicholas Leate, for example, actually kept agents traveling in the Orient and elsewhere to search for rare bulbs and plants. Explorers in the New World also brought home new plants and flowers. Sir Walter Raleigh imported the sweet potato and to- xii PREFACE bacco (but neither is mentioned by Shakespeare) and from the West Indies came the Nasturtium In- dicum—“Y ellow Lark’s Heels,” as the Elizabethans called it. Many persons will be interested to learn the quaint old flower names, such as ‘‘Sops-in-Wine,” the “Frantic Foolish Cowslip,” “Jack-an-Apes on Horse- back,” ‘‘Love in Idleness,” ‘‘Dian’s Bud,”’ etc. The Elizabethans enjoyed their gardens and used } them more than we use ours to-day. They went to them for re-creation—a renewing of body and re- freshment of mind and spirit. They loved their shady walks, their pleached alleys, their flower- wreathed arbors, their banks of thyme, rosemary, and woodbine, their intricate “‘knots’” bordered with box or thrift and filled with bright blossoms, and their labyrinths, or mazes. Garden lovers were criti- cal and careful about the arrangement and grouping of their flowers. To-day we try for masses of color; but the Elizabethans went farther than we do, for they blended their hues and even shaded colors from dark to light. The people of Shakespeare’s day were also fastidious about perfume values—something we do not think about to-day. The planting of flowers with regard to the “perfume on the air,” as Bacon describes it, was a part of ordinary garden PREFACE Xill lore. We have altogether lost this delicacy of gar- dening. © This book was the logical sequence of a talk I gave two years ago upon the ‘“‘Gardens and Flowers of Shakespeare’s Time” at the residence of Mrs. Charles H. Senff in New York, before the Interna- tional Garden Club. This talk was very cordially received and was repeated by request at the home of Mrs. Ernest H. Fahnestock, also in New York. I wish to express my thanks to Mr. Norman Tay- lor of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for permission to reprint the first chapter, which appeared in the “Journal of the International Garden Club,” of which he is the editor. I also wish to thank Mr. Taylor for his valued encouragement to me in the preparation of this book. I wish to direct attention to the remarkable por- trait of Nicholas Leate, one of the greatest flower collectors of his day, photographed especially for this book from the original portrait in oils, painted by Daniel Mytens for the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, of which Leate was master in 1616, 1626, and 1627. The portrait of this English worthy has never been photographed before; and it is a great pleasure for me to bring before the public the features and XIV PREFACE personality of a man who was such a deep lover of horticulture and who held such a large place in the London world in Shakespeare’s time. The dignity, refinement, distinction, and general atmosphere of Nicholas Leate—and evidently Mytens painted a direct portrait without flattery—bespeak the type of gentleman who sought re-creation in gardens and who could have held his own upon the subject with Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sid- ney, Lord Burleigh, and Sir Henry Wotton—and, doubtless, he knew them all. It was not an easy matter to have this portrait photographed, because when the Hall of the Wor- shipful Company of Ironmongers was destroyed by a German bomb in 1917 the rescued portrait was stored in the National Gallery. Access to the por- _trait was very difficult, and it was only through the great kindness of officials and personal friends that a reproduction was made possible. I wish, therefore, to thank the Worshipful Com- pany of Ironmongers for the gracious permission to have the portrait photographed and to express my gratitude to Mr. Collins Baker, keeper of the Na- tional Gallery, and to Mr. Ambrose, chief clerk and secretary of the National Gallery, for their kind co- operation; to Mr. C. W. Carey, curator of the PREFACE XV Royal Holloway College Gallery, who spent two days in photographing the masterpiece; and also to Sir Evan Spicer of the Dulwich Gallery and to my sister, Mrs. Carrington, through whose joint efforts the arrangements were perfected. I also wish to thank the Trustees and Guardians of Shakespeare’s Birthplace, who, through their Secretary, Mr. F. C. Wellstood, have supplied me with several photographs of the Shakespeare Garden at Stratford-upon-Avon, especially taken for this book, with permission for their reproduction. | E. S. New York, September 4, 1922. CONTENTS PART ONE THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT EvoLuTION OF THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN I. The Medieval Pleasance II. Garden of Delight . : III. The Italian Renaissance Garden IV. Bagh-i-Vafa . V. New Fad for Flowers VI. Tudor Gardens . VII. Garden Pleasures Tue Curtous Knorrep GarDEN : I. Flower Lovers and Eiscpaliees ’ II. The Elizabethan Garden III. Old Garden Authors IV. “Outlandish” and English Biawers PART TWO THE FLOWERS OF SHAKESPEARE Sprinc: “THE SWEET 0’ THE YEAR” I, Primroses, Cowslips, and Opips II. “Daffodils That Come Before the Swal- low Dares” III. ‘Daisies Pied and Wiglets Blue” : IV. “Lady-smocks All Silver White” and “Cuckoo-buds of Every Yellow Hue” Vii 130 XVili CONTENTS V.. Anemones and ‘‘Azured Harebells” VI. Columbine and Broom-flower SuMMER: “SWEET SUMMER Bups” . I. “Morning Roses Newly Washed wth Dew” : : esi lla II. “Lilies of All Kinds” : III. Crown-Imperial and Flower- dilsite IV. Fern and Honeysuckle . V. Carnations and Gilliflowers VI. Marigold and Larkspur : VII. Pansies for Thoughts and Pitpiss for Dreams : Pe VIII. Crow-flowers and kant Pariks IX. Saffron Crocus and Cuckoo-flowers X. Pomegranate and Myrtle AuTUMN: “HersBs oF GRACE” AND “DRAMS OF Poison” PRN PORE RR AN 3 I. Rosemary and Rue . ae: II. Lavender, Mints, and Fennel . : III. Sweet Marjoram, Thyme, and Savory IV. Sweet Balm and Camomile R V. Dian’s Bud and Monk’s-hood Blue WINTER: “WHEN IcIcLEs HANG BY THE WALL” I. Holly and Ivy II. Mistletoe and Box . PART THREE PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS Tue Lay-ouTt oF STATELY AND SMALL FoRMAL Gar- DENBY ASTON i en ae I. The: Stately “Gardew 27 7320s PAGE 133 137 145 145 160 167 175 181 189 200 207 210 215 224 224 231 236 243 246 253 253 261 269 271 CONTENTS i. The Small) Garden: i) Se oe III. Soil and Seed IV. The Gateway ; V. The Garden House . VI. The Mount . VII. Rustic Arches MELT.) Seats: 20 sera ae lene IX. Vases, Jars, and Tubs . X. Fountains XI. The Dove-cote XII. The Sun-dial XIII. The Terrace oe XIV. The Pleached Alley XV. Hedges one XVI. Paths XVII. Borders XVIII. Edgings . XIX. Knots ‘ XX. The Rock Garden XXI. Flowers XXII. Potpourri A MASKE OF FLOWERS ComMPpLETE List oF SHAKESPEAREAN FLOWERS WITH BotTaANICAL IDENTIFICATIONS APPENDIX: ELIZABETHAN GARDENS AT SHAKESPEARE’S BIRTH- PLACE INDEX .