From the time of Withers the poets treated the Marigold very much as the gardeners did--they passed it by altogether as beneath their notice.
"You the Sun to her must play, She to you the Marigold, To none but you her leaves unfold."
MIDDLETON AND ROWLEY, _The Spanish Gipsy_.
See also Thynne's "Emblems," No. 18; and Cutwode's "Caltha Poetarum," 1599, st. 18, 19.
[158:1] "Solsequium vel heliotropium; Solsece vel sigel-hwerfe" (_i.e._, sun-seeker or sun-turner).--ÆLFRIC'S _Vocabulary_.
"Marigolde; solsequium, sponsa solis."--_Catholicon Anglicum._
In a note Mr. Herttage says, "the oldest name for the plant was _ymbglidegold_, that which moves round with the sun."
Here's flowers for you; Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram.
The Lily I condemned for thy hand, And buds of Marjoram had stolen thy hair.
Indeed, sir, she was the sweet Marjoram of the Salad, or rather the Herb-of-grace.
_All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (17).
In Shakespeare's time several species of Marjoram were grown, especially the Common Marjoram (_Origanum vulgare_), a British plant, the Sweet Marjoram (_O. Marjorana_), a plant of the South of Europe, from which the English name comes,[159:1] and the Winter Marjoram (_O. Horacleoticum_). They were all favourite pot herbs, so that Lyte calls the common one "a delicate and tender herb," "a noble and odoriferous plant;" but, like so many of the old herbs, they have now fallen into disrepute. The comparison of a man's hair to the buds of Marjoram is not very intelligible, but probably it was a way of saying that the hair was golden.
[159:1] See "Catholicon Anglicum," s.v. Marioron and note.
The Oaks bear Mast, the Briers scarlet hips.
We still call the fruit of beech, beech-masts, but do not apply the name to the acorn. It originally meant food used for fatting, especially for fatting swine. See note in "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 329, giving several instances of this use, and Strattmann, s.v. Mæst.
An thou hadst hated Meddlers sooner, thou shouldst have loved thyself better now.
They would have married me to the rotten Medlar.
_Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (183).
I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a Medlar; then it will be the earliest fruit in the country, for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the Medlar.