Part 58 (2/2)
Swifter than the moon's sphere; And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (6).
(3) _Quickly._
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing, Like to the Garter's compa.s.s, in a ring: The expressure that it bears, green let it be, More fertile-fresh than all the field to see.
_Merry Wives_, act v, sc. 5 (69).
(4) _Ajax._
Toadstool, learn me the proclamation.
_Troilus and Cressida_, act ii, sc. 1 (22).
The three first pa.s.sages, besides the notice of the Mushroom, contain also the notice of the fairy-rings, which are formed by fungi, though probably Shakespeare knew little of this. No. 4 names the Toadstool, and the four pa.s.sages together contain the whole of Shakespeare's fungology, and it is little to be wondered at that he has not more to say on these curious plants. In his time ”Mushrumes or Toadstooles” (they were all cla.s.sed together) were looked on with very suspicious eyes, though they were so much eaten that we frequently find in the old herbals certain remedies against ”a surfeit of Mushrooms.” Why they should have been connected with toads has never been explained, but it was always so--
”The grieslie Todestoole growne there mought I see, And loathed paddocks lording on the same.”--SPENSER.
They were a.s.sociated with other loathsome objects besides toads, for ”Poisonous Mushrooms groweth where old rusty iron lieth, or rotten clouts, or neere to serpent's dens or rootes of trees that bring forth venomous fruit.[170:1]. . . Few of them are good to be eaten, and most of them do suffocate and strangle the eater. Therefore, I give my advice unto those that love such strange and new-fangled meates to beware of licking honey among thornes, lest the sweetnesse of one do not counteracte the sharpnesse and p.r.i.c.king of the other.” This was Gerard's prudent advice on the eating of ”Mushrumes and Toadstooles,” but nowadays we know better. The fungologists tell us that those who refuse to eat any fungus but the Mushroom (_Agaricus campestris_) are not only foolish in rejecting most delicate luxuries, but also very wrong in wasting most excellent and nutritious food. Fungologists are great enthusiasts, and it may be well to take their prescription _c.u.m grano salis_; but we may qualify Gerard's advice by the well-known enthusiastic description of Dr. Badham, who certainly knew much more of fungology than Gerard, and did not recommend to others what he had not personally tried himself. After praising the beauty of an English autumn, even in comparison with Italy, he thus concludes his pleasant and useful book, ”The Esculent Funguses of England”: ”I have myself witnessed whole hundredweights of rich, wholesome diet rotting under trees, woods teeming with food, and not one hand to gather it. . . . I have, indeed, grieved when I reflected on the straitened conditions of the lower orders to see pounds innumerable of extempore beefsteaks growing on our Oaks in the shape of _Fistula hepatica_; _Ag. fusipes_, to pickle in cl.u.s.ters under them; _Puffb.a.l.l.s_, which some of our friends have not inaptly compared to sweet-bread for the rich delicacy of their una.s.sisted flavour; _Hydna_, as good as oysters, which they very much resemble in taste; _Agaricus deliciosus_, reminding us of tender lamb's kidneys: the beautiful yellow _Chantarelle_, that _kalon kagathon_ of diet, growing by the bushel, and no basket but our own to pick up a few specimens in our way; the sweet nutty-flavoured _Boletus_, in vain calling himself _edulis_ when there was none to believe him; the dainty _Orcella_; the _Ag. hetherophyllus_, which tastes like the crawfish when grilled; the _Ag. ruber_ and _Ag. virescens_, to cook in any way, and equally good in all.”
As to the fairy rings (Nos. 1, 2, and 3) a great amount of legendary lore was connected with them. Browne notices them--
”A pleasant mead Where fairies often did their measures tread, Which in the meadows makes such circles green As if with garlands it had crowned been.”
_Britannia's Pastorals._
Cowley said--
”Where once such fairies dance, No gra.s.s does ever grow;”
and in Shakespeare's time the sheep refused to eat the gra.s.s on the fairy rings (1); I believe they now feed on it, but I have not been able to ascertain this with certainty. Others, besides the sheep, avoided them. ”When the damsels of old gathered may-dew on the gra.s.s, which they made use of to improve their complexions, they left undisturbed such of it as they perceived on the fairy rings, apprehensive that the fairies should in revenge destroy their beauty, nor was it reckoned safe to put the foot within the rings, lest they should be liable to fairies'
power.”--DOUCE'S _Ill.u.s.trations_, p. 180.
FOOTNOTES:
[170:1] Herrick calls them ”brownest Toadstones.”
MUSK ROSES, _see_ ROSE.
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