_Tamora._ Have I not reason, think you, to look pale? These two have 'tic'd me hither to this place:-- A barren detested vale, you see, it is; The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe: Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds, Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven."
[532] "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 386.
_Mushroom._ Besides his notice of the mushroom in the following passages, Shakespeare alludes to the fairy rings[533] which are formed by fungi, though, as Mr. Ellacombe[534] points out, he probably knew little of this. In "The Tempest" (v. 1), Prospero says of the fairies:
"you demi-puppets, that By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms;"
the allusion in this passage being to the superstition that sheep will not eat the grass that grows on fairy rings.
[534] "Plant-Lore of Shakespeare," p. 131.
_Mustard._ Tewksbury mustard, to which reference is made in "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4), where Falstaff speaks of "wit as thick as Tewksbury mustard," was formerly very famous. Shakespeare speaks only of its thickness, but others have celebrated its pungency. Coles, writing in 1657, says: "In Gloucestershire, about Teuxbury, they grind mustard and make it into balls, which are brought to London, and other remote places, as being the best that the world affords."
_Narcissus._ The old legend attached to this flower is mentioned by Emilia in "The Two Noble Kinsmen" (ii. 1):
"That was a fair boy certain, but a fool, To love himself; were there not maids enough?"
_Nutmeg._ A gilt nutmeg was formerly a common gift at Christmas and on other festive occasions, a notice of which occurs in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2), in the following dialogue:[535]
"_Armado._ 'The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, Gave Hector a gift,--'
[535] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 612.
_Oak._ A crown of oak was considered by the Romans worthy of the highest emulation of statesmen and warriors. To him who had saved the life of a Roman soldier was given a crown of oak-leaves; one, indeed, which was accounted more honorable than any other. In "Coriolanus" (ii. 1), Volumnia says: "he comes the third time home with the oaken garland." And again (i. 3): "To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak." Montesquieu, indeed, said that it was with two or three hundred crowns of oak that Rome conquered the world. Although so much historical and legendary lore have clustered round the oak, yet scarcely any mention is made of this by Shakespeare. The legend of Herne the Hunter, which seems to have been current at Windsor, is several times alluded to, as, for instance, in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (iv. 4):