![]() Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the powerful fairy king Oberon depicts a bank covered in weeds and wildflowers in evocative and glowing terms: ![]() Shakespeare’s use of weeds isn’t always so morbid. Weeds also play central roles as folk remedies or sinister magical ingredients in many of Shakespeare’s other works, from the deadly nightshade ( Atropa belladonna) sleeping draught in Romeo and Juliet to the 'root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark' that the witches in Macbeth use in their potion. Some believe that Shakespeare is referring to the white water-crowfoot ( Ranunculus aquatilis), while others argue that it is the ragged robin ( Lychnis flos-cuculi). The ‘long purples’ are referring to early-purple orchids ( Orchis mascula), although opinion is split over which plant the crowflowers refer to in Ophelia's garland. She then falls into water and, without resistance, sinks alongside 'her weedy trophies'. ![]() She crafts 'fantastic garlands… of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples' and then 'angs 'on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds". Ophelia’s tragic suicide (spoiler alert!), depicted in Sir John Everett Millais iconic painting is adorned with weeds, which become her funeral flowers. This double meaning contributes to how we interpret sexual behaviour and female virtue within the play. Rue is described by Ophelia as 'herb of grace o' Sundays', and symbolises repentance, but it was also understood as a powerful way to induce abortion. In Hamlet, Ophelia hands out plants including fennel ( Foeniculum vulgare), daisies ( Bellis perennis), rue ( Ruta graveolens) and violets ( Viola), which held multiple meanings. Shakespeare loved to use weeds and wildflowers to drive the plot and add colour to his plays. Several centuries later, during the Elizabethan period, cultural interpretations of weeds became more diverse and more complicated. The beginning of The Canterbury Tales, also written by Chaucer, describes the regrowth of wild plants in spring as part of a mood that makes people want to go on pilgrimages: April rains which 'bathed every veyne in swich licour,/ Of which vertu engendred is the flour'. Soch that men callen daisies in our town. Than love I most these floures white and rede, In The Legend of Good Women, he places the humble daisy above all other flowers in the meadow: He conjures images of a ‘courtly idyll’, which is an idealised version of the codes of honour that were aspired to in the Middle Ages. Charming!Ĭhaucer, who was the most significant poet of the Middle Ages and considered the ‘Father of English Literature’, uses weeds and wildflowers with more positive connotations. Weeds are also used as a signifier of bad behaviour in the Old Testament. The Book of Zephaniah describes places with sinful occupants as 'possessed by nettles and salt pits', and the Book of Proverbs describes a lazy man’s vineyard as 'overgrown with thistles'. ![]() Here, weeds are used as a metaphor for those who, on Judgement Day, will be separated from good believers and ‘burned’ – perhaps literally – in Hell! At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' Let both grow together until the harvest. ![]() 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. In the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew tells the Parable of the Weeds, where good and bad people are likened to wheat and weeds growing together in a field: If we were to list all the times weeds have cropped up in writing over the centuries, we’d be here for hours! So here are our favourite examples of how weeds have contributed to literature, shifting from and returning to common themes over the years. The symbolic use of weeds has been popular in literature ever since. The Wife’s Lament, an Anglo-Saxon poem dating from the 10th century and one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature, features a 'woody grove' that is 'overgrown with thorns'. In fact, weeds were at the very start of English-language writing. It might come as a surprise that weeds have played a large part in the cultural landscape throughout history. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |