Shakespeare's rich legacy of floral passages

by Gwen Herat at Shakespeare Birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Daffodils, 'Daffodils that come before the swallows dare and take, The winds of March with beauty', The winter's Tale, Act. IV, scene IV

This summer, the flowers and burgeon are in full swing in an array of technicolour. The sun is smiling up in heavens as the gentle breeze caresses my brow. Virtually, I have visited the Shakespeare Centre annually browsing through new books and play presentations. This is time I opted to leave these alone and decided to stroll down the sprawling, laden beds. At the moment, they are a pristine glory. As I keep moving around this nature's luxury, I intend to study some flowers that I do not find back home in Sri Lanka, The flowers I would like to share about with my horticulture friends. Shakespeare celebrates their beauty in his plays. He pays homage to their wondrous impact on humanity and how they announce each passing season. His favourite season was Spring.

At the moment I am relaxing under a plant whose origin dates back to the time Shakespeare planted it. It has been cultivated over and over again down the centuries. The plant is unique and so is the Shakespeare Trust that takes so much pains to maintain its lifeline.

An instinct country-man, an essential Englishman, he was influenced by his native Warwickshire that reflects through most of his plays. He was impressed immensely by his early environment as his parents came from farming families in the adjoining country, a few miles off his birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon. He praised his River Avon as well as Welcombe on the rising ground looking across the river valley. It was on all these sites that the young Shakespeare learned about flowers, and wildflowers, as well as herbs. He was to remember them with adoration in his later years and marvel them in his plays and sonnets.

Now, I move across to Anne Hathaway's cottage garden brimming with beautiful foliage mixed with flowers scenting the air wildly in the gentle breeze. No wonder the Bard met Anne in the midst of this magical environment.

Adonis flower, 'The flowers are sweet, their colours fresh and trim', From Venus and Adonis

'How sweet the moonlight sleep upon this bank

Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears, soft stillness of the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.'

Merchant of Venice Act 5, Sc. 1

Shakespeare mentioned the seasons in his plays to dot them with the relevant seasonal flowers. Sometimes the flowers indicated the moods of his characters with Ophelia from Hamlet being the best example.

'There is a willow grows aslant the brrok

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream

There with fantastic garlands did she come

Of Crowflowers, Nettle, Daisies and Long Purples

That liberal sheperds gave a grosser name'....

Hamlet, IV, 7.

Crow Imperial

This flower is mentioned only once when Perdita links it with 'bold Oxlips'. An exceptionally beautiful flower in yellow-gold, it has a tall leafy stalk with a cluster of beautiful drooping flowers. I can see a mass of them just few yards away. It is a summer flower and therefore, at its best in April.

Daffodil

Crown Imperial, 'Bold Oxlips and the Crown Imperial' The winter's Tale - Act. IV, scene IV

Yet again Shakespeare uses Perdita to involve the daffodil which symbolises joy and gladness. Even the winds of March cannot daunt the daffodil. Daffodils are found in the woodlands and meadows as a prelude to the arrival of the swallows. Winter’s Tale is laden with daffodils as Autolycus dialogue it.

Long Purple

A very unusaul flower that made me confused like many others who think it to be an early orchid in the woods and meadows while some think it to be a wild arum because of its stout spike-like flowers projecting upwards. I think the Long Purple is more a relative of the Arum Lily. It has a lovely shading of purple dissolving into cream. Shakespeare gloryfies this flower in Hamelet.

Adonis Flower

Shakespeare showers praise on this strikingly different flower in Venus and Adonis. It is a purple flower chequered in white giving it a fabric look. It is commonly found in woodlands in early spring and withers off quickly after flowering.

'The flowers are sweet, their colours fresh and trim' (Venus and Adonis (love dpoem).