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Ben Jonson, with most of the old poets, studiously preserved the sense of the name given to each flower: for instance, instead of daisy, a word which at first seems to mean nothing, he says "bright day's-eyes," the flower having received that name from its habit of closing up in rainy weather and at night. Besides "eye of the day," it was also named "marguerite," a pearl, under which title it is celebrated by Chaucer.
In Feverere, whan that it was colde,
Froste, snowe, haile, raine, hath dominacion,
With changable elementes, and windes manifolde,
Which hath of ground, flowre, herbe, jurisdicion,
For to dispose aftir their correcion;
And yet Aprillis, with his plesant showres,
Dissolveth the snow, and bringeth forth his flowres.
Of whose invencion lovirs may be glade,
For they bring in the Kalendis of Maie,
And they, with countenance demure, meke,
Owe worship to the lusty flowres alwaie.
And in special one called iye of the daie,
The daisie, or flowir white and rede,
And in Frenche called La belle Marguerite.
Chaucer's love of the daisy is most fully and beautifully expressed in the "Prologue to the Legende of goode Women," one of the many gems we find in his works. He describes his great fondness for study, and how he delights in reading his "olde bookes," for which he has such faith and credence that no sport nor game can entice him away from them,
