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we are eagerly longing for the time, when
Daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight.
How gracefully linked together in perfect poesy are the few sweet Spring Flowers which our divine Shakspeare represents the fair Perdita as wishing for to present to her guests—
O Proserpina,
For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st fall
From Dis's waggon! Daffodils
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty. Violets, dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,
Or Cytherea's breath. Pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phœbus in his strength; a malady
Most incident to maids. Bold oxlips, and
The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds,
The flower-de-luce being one.
Having culled most of Shakspeare's floral gems for introduction in other parts of the present volume, I will only select one or two more groups of flowers, and then pass on to the fables, &c., connected with those forming the illustrations of Spring.
Ben Jonson—"rare Ben Jonson"—has a most beautiful scene in "Pan's Anniversary," where all the flowers familiarly known are thus lightly yet richly grouped.
