79
HOW PANSIES OR HART'S-EASE CAME FIRST.
Frolick virgins once these were,
Overloving, living here;
Being here their ends deny'd,
Ran for sweethearts mad, and dy'd.
Love, in pitie of their teares,
And their losse in blooming yeares,
For their restlesse here-spent houres,
Grave them hart's-ease turned to floures.
Thus the Heartsease is made the emblem-flower of those coquettish fair ones, whose youthful smiles and blandishments have failed in attaining the end so devoutly wished; though, for my own part, I am much inclined to dispute the justice of Master Herrick's decision, inasmuch as coquetry, or, to use a more modern term, flirtation, in youth, cannot possibly procure hearts' ease in old age.
To attempt any thing like an original illustration of a flower so invested with poetry by our sovereign of song, would be, if not "to gild refined gold," at least to place the counterfeit beside the true metal, as if to betray itself. I have only endeavoured, by introducing some young and popular descendants of the Shakspearian favourite, to render the quoted passages yet more familiar, and the emblems more evident and varied. If my introduction of these modern beauties, as candidates for participation in the honours awarded to their ancient, but far less brilliant namesakes, should induce any Pansy fancier to acknowledge the poetical, as well as the
