Part 16 (2/2)

The chief flowers used by them for strewing over graves were the polyanthus, myrtle, and amaranth; the rose, it would appear from Anacreon, having been thought to possess a special virtue for the dead:--

”When pain afflicts and sickness grieves, Its juice the drooping heart relieves; And after death its odours shed A pleasing fragrance o'er the dead.”

And Electra is represented as complaining that the tomb of her father, Agamemnon, had not been duly adorned with myrtle--

”With no libations, nor with myrtle boughs, Were my dear father's manes gratified.”

The Greeks also planted asphodel and mallow round their graves, as the seeds of these plants were supposed to nourish the dead. Mourners, too, wore flowers at the funeral rites, and Homer relates how the Thessalians used crowns of amaranth at the burial of Achilles. The Romans were equally observant, and Ovid, when writing from the land of exile, prayed his wife--”But do you perform the funeral rites for me when dead, and offer chaplets wet with your tears. Although the fire shall have changed my body into ashes, yet the sad dust will be sensible of your pious affection.” Like the Greeks, the Romans set a special value on the rose as a funeral flower, and actually left directions that their graves should be planted with this favourite flower, a custom said to have been introduced by them into this country. Both Camden and Aubrey allude to it, and at the present day in Wales white roses denote the graves of young unmarried girls.

Coming down to modern times, we find the periwinkle, nicknamed ”death's flower,” scattered over the graves of children in Italy--notably Tuscany--and in some parts of Germany the pink is in request for this purpose. In Persia we read of:--

”The basil-tuft that waves Its fragrant blossoms over graves;”

And among the Chinese, roses, the anemone, and a species of lycoris are planted over graves. The Malays use a kind of basil, and in Tripoli tombs are adorned with such sweet and fragrant flowers as the orange, jessamine, myrtle, and rose. In Mexico the Indian carnation is popularly known as the ”flower of the dead,” and the people of Tahiti cover their dead with choice flowers. In America the Freemasons place twigs of acacia on the coffins of brethren. The Buddhists use flowers largely for funeral purposes, and an Indian name for the tamarisk is the ”messenger of Yama,” the Indian G.o.d of Death. The people of Madagascar have a species of mimosa, which is frequently found growing on the tombs, and in Norway the funeral plants are juniper and fir. In France the custom very largely nourishes, roses and orange-blossoms in the southern provinces being placed in the coffins of the young. Indeed, so general is the practice in France that, ”sceptics and believers uphold it, and statesmen, and soldiers, and princes, and scholars equally with children and maidens are the objects of it.”

Again, in Oldenburg, it is said that cornstalks must be scattered about a house in which death has entered, as a charm against further misfortune, and in the Tyrol an elder bush is often planted on a newly-made grave.

In our own country the practice of crowning the dead and of strewing their graves with flowers has prevailed from a very early period, a custom which has been most pathetically and with much grace described by Shakespeare in ”Cymbeline” (Act iv. sc. 2):--

”With fairest flowers, Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor The azured harebell, like thy veins; no, nor The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, Out-sweeten'd not thy breath: the ruddock would, With charitable bill, O bill, sore-shaming Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie Without a monument! bring thee all this; Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, To winter-ground thy corse.”

Allusions to the custom are frequently to be met with in our old writers, many of which have been collected together by Brand.[7] In former years it was customary to carry sprigs of rosemary at a funeral, probably because this plant was considered emblematical of remembrance:--

”To show their love, the neighbours far and near, Follow'd with wistful look the damsel's bier; Spring'd rosemary the lads and la.s.ses bore, While dismally the parson walked before.”

Gay speaks of the flowers scattered on graves as ”rosemary, daisy, b.u.t.ter'd flower, and endive blue,” and Pepys mentions a churchyard near Southampton where the graves were sown with sage. Another plant which has from a remote period been a.s.sociated with death is the cypress, having been planted by the ancients round their graves. In our own country it was employed as a funeral flower, and Coles thus refers to it, together with the rosemary and bay:--

”Cypresse garlands are of great account at funerals amongst the gentler sort, but rosemary and bayes are used by the commons both at funerals and weddings. They are all plants which fade not a good while after they are gathered, and used (as I conceive) to intimate unto us that the remembrance of the present solemnity might not die presently (at once), but be kept in mind for many years.”

The yew has from time immemorial been planted in churchyards besides being used at funerals. Paris, in ”Romeo and Juliet”, (Act v. sc. 3), says:--

”Under yon yew trees lay thee all along, Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground; So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread, Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves, But thou shall hear it.”

Shakespeare also refers to the custom of sticking yew in the shroud in the following song in ”Twelfth Night” (Act ii. sc. 4):--

”My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, Oh, prepare it; My part of death, no one so true Did share it.”

Unhappy lovers had garlands of willow, yew, and rosemary laid on their biers, an allusion to which occurs in the ”Maid's Tragedy”:--

”Lay a garland on my hea.r.s.e Of the dismal yew; Maidens, willow branches bear-- Say I died true.

My love was false, but I was firm From my hour of birth; Upon my buried body lie Lightly, gentle earth.”

Among further funeral customs may be mentioned that of carrying a garland of flowers and sweet herbs before a maiden's coffin, and afterwards suspending it in the church. Nichols, in his ”History of Lancas.h.i.+re” (vol. ii. pt. i. 382), speaking of Waltham in Framland Hundred, says: ”In this church under every arch a garland is suspended, one of which is customarily placed there whenever any young unmarried woman dies.” It is to this custom Gay feelingly alludes:--

”To her sweet mem'ry flowing garlands strung, On her now empty seat aloft were hung.”

Indeed, in all the ceremonial observances of life, from the cradle to the grave, flowers have formed a prominent feature, the symbolical meaning long attached to them explaining their selection on different occasions.

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