I trust, ere long, to choke thee with thine own, And make thee curse the harvest of that Corn.
Why droops my lord like over-ripened Corn Hanging the head at Ceres' plenteous load?
His well-proportioned beard made rough and ragged Like to the summer's Corn by tempest lodged.
We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind That even our Corn shall seem as light as chaff.
Though bladed Corn be lodged and trees blown down.
He weeds the Corn, and still lets grow the weeding.
_Love's Labour's Lost_, act i, sc. 1 (96).
Allons! allons! sowed Cockle reap'd no Corn.
Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? Thy sheep be in the Corn.
All the idle weeds that grow In our sustaining Corn.
First thrash the Corn, then after burn the straw.
O, let me teach you how to knit again This scattered Corn into one mutual sheaf.
Our ships are stored with Corn to make your needy bread.
Your grace that fed my country with your Corn.
The gods sent not Corn for the rich men only.
This kind of service Did not deserve Corn gratis.
I am right glad to catch this good occasion Most thoroughly to be winnow'd, where my chaff And Corn shall fly asunder.
Her foes shake like a field of beaten Corn And hang their heads with sorrow.
We'll make foul weather with despised tears; Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer Corn.
And run Swifter then winde upon a field of Corne (Curling the wealthy eares) never flew.
As Corn o'ergrown by weeds, so heedful fear Is almost choked by unresisted lust.
I have made these quotations as short as possible. They could not be omitted, but they require no comment.
The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover.
The Violets, Cowslips, and the Primroses, Bear to my closet.
On her left breast A mole, cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops I' the bottom of a Cowslip.
Where the bee sucks there suck I, In a Cowslip's bell I lie.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (339).
The Cowslips tall her pensioners be; In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours; I must go seek some dewdrops here, And hang a pearl in every Cowslip's ear.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (10).[65:1]
"Cowslips! how the children love them, and go out into the fields on the sunny April mornings to collect them in their little baskets, and then come home and pick the pips to make sweet unintoxicating wine, preserving at the same time untouched a bunch of the goodliest flowers as a harvest-sheaf of beauty! and then the white soft husks are gathered into balls and tossed from hand to hand till they drop to pieces, to be trodden upon and forgotten. And so at last, when each sense has had its fill of the flower, and they are thoroughly tired of their play, the children rest from their celebration of the Cowslip. Blessed are such flowers that appeal to every sense." So wrote Dr. Forbes Watson in his very pretty and Ruskinesque little work "Flowers and Gardens," and the passage well expresses one of the chief charms of the Cowslip. It is the most favourite wild flower with children. It must have been also a favourite with Shakespeare, for his descriptions show that he had studied it with affection. The minute description in (6) should be noticed. The upright golden Cowslip is compared to one of Queen Elizabeth's Pensioners, who were splendidly dressed, and are frequently noticed in the literature of the day. With Mrs. Quickly they were the _ne plus ultra_ of grandeur--"And yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners" ("Merry Wives," act ii, sc. 2). Milton, too, sings in its praise--