The Old English Herbals
by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde · English · Gutenberg #33654 · 569,032 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Old English Herbals
Author: Eleanour Sinclair Rohde
Release date: September 6, 2010 [eBook #33654]
Language: English
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Transcriber's Note
Greek text has been transliterated, and is marked with plus signs,
e.g. +Peri Didaxeôn+.
Oe ligatures are indicated with [oe].
Superscripted characters are surrounded with braces, e.g. y{e}.
Characters with macrons, which usually indicate omitted letters, are
marked with square brackets and an equals sign, e.g. tha[=n]e.
Yogh is indicated as [gh], e.g. wyrt[gh]erd.
Apostrophus symbols, resembling a backwards C, are indicated with [C].
Tironian ampersands are indicated with [et].
A letter q with a small c above it, meaning the word 'qui', is
indicated with [qui].
A letter u with a small o above it, indicating pronunciation, is
marked as [ou].
Asterisms (three dots arranged in a triangle point-up) are indicated
with [.'.]. Reverse asterisms (three dots arranged in a triangle
point-down) are indicated with ['.'].
Other symbols are noted descriptively, and are enclosed in square
brackets and marked with tildes, e.g. [~Sun~].
The parallel-column text referred to on page 67 has been transcribed
as two separate paragraphs in this version of the e-text.
THE OLD
ENGLISH HERBALS
BY
ELEANOUR SINCLAIR ROHDE
AUTHOR OF "A GARDEN OF HERBS"
[Illustration: Illustration of the "lilie" from the Saxon
translation of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_]
Longmans, Green and Co.
1922
[Illustration: HERBS BEING DUG UP AND MADE INTO MEDICINES UNDER THE
DIRECTION OF A SAGE
From a 12th century copy of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_, now in the
Library of Eton College]
TO
MY BROTHER
"The Lely is an herbe wyth a whyte floure. And though the
levys of the floure be whyte: yet wythin shyneth the
lykenesse of golde."--BARTHOLOMÆUS ANGLICUS (_circ._ 1260).
PREFACE
The writing of this book on that fascinating and somewhat neglected[1]
branch of garden literature--the old English Herbals--has been a
labour of love, but it could not have been done without all the kind
help I have had. My grateful thanks are due to the authorities at the
British Museum, to Professor Burkitt of Cambridge, and very specially
to Mr. J. B. Capper for invaluable help. I am indebted to Dr. James,
the Provost of Eton, for his kind permission to reproduce an
illustration from a twelfth-century MS. in the Library of Eton College
for the frontispiece. I find it difficult to express either my
indebtedness or my gratitude to Dr. and Mrs. Charles Singer, the
former for all his help and the latter for her generous permission to
make use of her valuable bibliography of early scientific manuscripts.
I am further indebted to Dr. Charles Singer for reading the chapter on
the Anglo-Saxon herbals in proof. For their kind courtesy in answering
my inquiries concerning the MS. herbals in the libraries of their
respective cathedrals, I offer my grateful thanks to the Deans of
Lincoln and Gloucester Cathedrals, and to the Rev. J. N. Needham for
information concerning the herbals in the library of Durham Cathedral;
to the librarians of the following colleges--All Souls' College,
Oxford; Balliol College, Oxford; Corpus Christi College, Oxford;
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Emmanuel College, Cambridge;
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; Magdalene College, Cambridge;
Peterhouse, Cambridge; Jesus College, Cambridge; St. John's College,
Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge; to the librarians of Durham
University, Trinity College, Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, and the
National Library of Wales; to the Honble. Lady Cecil for information
respecting MSS. in the library of the late Lord Amherst of Hackney;
and to the following owners of private libraries--the Marquis of Bath,
Lord Leconfield, Lord Clifden, Mr. T. Fitzroy Fenwick of Cheltenham,
and Mr. Wynne of Peniarth, Merioneth. For information respecting
incunabula herbals in American libraries I am indebted to Dr. Arnold
Klebs and to Mr. Green of the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
No pains have been spared to make the bibliographies as complete as
possible, but I should be glad to be told of any errors or omissions.
There are certain editions of _Banckes's Herbal_ and _The Grete
Herball_ mentioned by authorities such as Ames, Hazlitt, etc., of
which no copies can now be found in the chief British libraries (see
p. 204 _et seq._). If any copies of these editions are in private
libraries I should be grateful to hear of them. The rarest printed
herbal is "_Arbolayre conten[=a]t la qualitey et vertus proprietiez
des herbes g[=o]mes et sim[=e]ces extraite de plusiers tratiers de
medicine co[=m]ent davicene de rasis de constatin de ysaac et
plateaire selon le co[=n]u usaige bien correct_." (Supposed to have
been printed by M. Husz at Lyons.) It is believed that there are only
two copies of this book now extant. One is in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris; the other was sold in London, March 23, 1898, but I
have been unable to discover who is the present owner. For this or any
other information I should be most grateful.
ELEANOUR SINCLAIR ROHDE.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] It is a remarkable fact that even the eleventh edition of the
omniscient _Encyclopædia Britannica_ has no article on Herbals.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS 1
Evidence of the existence of books on herbs in the eighth
century--Tenth-century manuscripts--Their importance as the
first records of Anglo-Saxon plant lore and of folk medicine
of a still earlier age--Preliminary survey of the more
important manuscripts--_Leech Book of Bald_--Authorship and
origin--Oldest Leech Book written in the vernacular in
Europe--Saxon translation of the _Herbarium Apuleii
Platonici_--Illustrations--Saxon translation of the +Peri
Didaxeôn+--The _Lacnunga_--Importance of these manuscripts
to the student of folk lore--Folk lore of the origin of
disease--Doctrine of the "elf-shot"--"Flying
venom"--Doctrine of the worm as the ultimate source of
disease--Demoniac possession--Herbal
remedies--Picturesqueness of Saxon methods of treating
diseases--Smoking patient with fumes of herbs--Cattle
similarly treated--Use of herbs as amulets--Binding on with
red wool--Specially sacred herbs--Charms and incantations to
be used in picking and administering herbs--Transference of
disease--Predominance of the number nine--Ceremonies to be
observed in the picking of herbs--Nature-worship in these
ceremonies--Eostra--Prayer to Earth.
CHAPTER II
LATER MANUSCRIPT HERBALS AND THE EARLY PRINTED HERBALS 42
Later manuscript herbals--Copies of Macer's herbal--Treatise
on the virtues of rosemary sent by the Countess of Hainault
to Queen Philippa of England--Bartholomæus Anglicus, _De
Proprietatibus rerum_--Popularity of his
writings--Characteristics of _De herbis_--Trevisa's
translation--Bartholomæus on the rose, the violet,
etc.--Fleeting pictures of mediæval life in _De
herbis_--Feeding swine, making bread, building houses,
making linen, life in the vineyards, woods, etc.--Wynken de
Worde's poem at the end of his edition of _De Proprietatibus
rerum_--_Banckes's Herbal_--Possible sources--Later
editions--Rose recipes--Mediæval belief in wholesomeness of
fragrant herbs--Descriptions of herbs in _Banckes's
Herbal_--"The boke of secretes of Albartus Magnus"--Herb
lore and magic--The _Grete Herball_--Its origin--Peter
Treveris--Characteristics of this herbal--_The vertuose book
of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbes_.
CHAPTER III
TURNER'S HERBAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN HERBALISTS 75
William Turner--Cambridge with Nicholas Ridley--Travels
abroad--Bologna--Luca Ghini--Conrad
Gesner--Cologne--Appointed chaplain and physician to the
Duke of Somerset--His early writings on herbs--Turner's
Herbal--Illustrations--Characteristics of the
book--Descriptions of herbs--North-country lore--Old country
customs--Influence of the foreign herbalists on the later
English herbals--Leonhard Fuchs--Rembert Dodoens--Charles de
l'Escluse--Matthias de l'Obel--Lyte's translation of
Dodoens' _Cruÿdtboeck_--Illustrations--_Ram's little
Dodoen_.
CHAPTER IV
GERARD'S HERBAL 98
Popularity of Gerard's Herbal--Its charm--Gerard's
boyhood--Later life--His garden in Holborn--Friendship with
Jean Robin, keeper of the royal gardens in Paris--Origin of
Gerard's Herbal--Illustrations--Old beliefs in the effects
of herbs on the heart and mind--Use of herbs as
amulets--Other folk lore--Myth of the barnacle geese--Origin
and history of the myth--Old English names of plants--Wild
flower life of London in Elizabeth's day--"Master Tuggie's"
garden in Westminster--Shakespeare and Gerard.
CHAPTER V
HERBALS OF THE NEW WORLD 120
Herbals written in connection with the colonisation of
America by the Spaniards and English--Early records of the
plant lore of the Red Indians--English weeds introduced into
America and first gardens in New England--_Joyfull Newes
from out of the newe founde worlde_--Gums used by the Red
Indians--"Mechoacan"--"The hearbe tabaco"--First account and
illustration of this plant--Its uses by the Red Indians in
their religious ceremonies and as a wound-herb--Origin of
the name "Nicotiana"--Sassafras--Use by the Spanish
soldiers--Root used as a pomander in Europe in time of
plague--_New England's Rarities discovered_--Weeds
introduced into America with the first Colonists--First list
of English plants grown in New England gardens--_The
American Physitian_--The "Maucaw" tree--Use of the seed by
the Red Indians--Cacao and the making of chocolate--Cacao
kernels used as tokens--James Petiver--_The South-Sea
Herbal_.
CHAPTER VI
JOHN PARKINSON, THE LAST OF THE GREAT ENGLISH HERBALISTS 142
John Parkinson--The _Paradisus_--Myth of the vegetable
lamb--Origin of the myth--Characteristics of the book--An
Elizabethan flower-garden--Lilies, anemones, gilliflowers,
cucko-flowers, etc.--Sweet herbs: rosemary, lavender,
basil, thyme, hyssop--The kitchen garden--The
orchard--_Theatrum Botanicum_--Its importance--Old belief in
the power of herbs against evil spirits--Folk lore in this
Herbal--Bee lore--Beauty recipes--Country customs and
beliefs.
CHAPTER VII
LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS AND SIXTEENTH- AND
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY STILL-ROOM BOOKS 163
Later seventeenth-century Herbals--Revival of belief in
astrological lore--Nicholas Culpeper--His
character--Popularity in the East End of London--His
Herbal--Coles's _Art of Simpling_--Doctrine of
Signatures--Herbs used by animals--Plants used in and
against witchcraft--Coles's astrological beliefs--On the
pleasures of gardening--Still-room books--Their relation to
herbals--The Fairfax still-room book--An old
love-letter--Recipes: "To make a bath for melancholy,"
"Balles for the face," "For them theyr speech
faileth"--_Lady Sedley her receipt book_--Noted contributors
to this book--_Mary Doggett Her Book of Receipts_,
1682--Recipes: "A pomander for balme water," "To dry roses
for sweet powder," "A perfume for a sweet bagg"--The
Countess of Kent's still-room book--"A comfortable cordial
to cheer the heart"--Tryon's still-room book--Sir Kenelm
Digby--Charm of his books--Recipes: "Sweet meat of apples,"
"Wheaten Flommery," "A Flomery Caudle," "Conserve of Red
Roses"--The old herb-gardens--Fairies and
herb-gardens--Revival of the old belief in the communion
between stars and flowers.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
ENGLISH HERBALS 189
I. Manuscript herbals, treatises on the virtues of herbs,
etc. Manuscripts written in Latin after 1400 are not
included in this list.
II. Printed books. The herbals are listed according to
authors, or, in the case of anonymous works, according to
the names by which they are usually known, and full titles,
etc., of all known editions are given. In cases where only
one copy of an edition is known the library where it is to
be found is indicated. Editions mentioned in Ames, Hazlitt,
etc., but of which no copies are now known, are listed, but
in each case the fact that the only mention of them is to be
found in one of the above is stated.
FOREIGN HERBALS 225
This list includes only the chief works and those which have
some connection with the history of the herbal in England.
INDEX 237
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Facing page_
HERBS BEING DUG UP AND MADE INTO MEDICINES UNDER
THE DIRECTION OF A SAGE _Frontispiece_
ÆSCULAPIUS PLATO AND A CENTAUR FROM THE SAXON
TRANSLATION OF THE "HERBARIUM OF APULEIUS" 10
MANDRAKE FROM A SAXON HERBAL 22
(1) ARTEMISIA AND (2) BLACKBERRY, FROM A SAXON HERBAL 30
FROM A SAXON HERBAL 40
WOODCUT OF TREES AND HERBS FROM THE SEVENTEENTH BOOK
OF "DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM" 48
INITIAL LETTERS FROM "BANCKES'S HERBAL" 56
WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE "GRETE HERBALL" (1526) 64
WOODCUT OF PETER TREVERIS' SIGN OF THE "WODOWS" FROM THE
"GRETE HERBALL" (1529) 70
WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE FOURTH EDITION OF THE
"GRETE HERBALL" (1561) 71
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TURNER'S "HERBALL" 88
PORTRAIT OF JOHN GERARD FROM THE FIRST EDITION OF THE
"HERBALL" (1597) 104
ILLUSTRATIONS OF SASSAFRAS AND TOBACCO FROM NICHOLAS
MONARDES' "JOYFULL NEWES OUT OF THE NEWE FOUNDE
WORLDE" (1577) 128
TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "PARADISUS" (1629) 144
TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON'S "THEATRUM BOTANICUM" (1640) 152
PORTRAIT OF JOHN PARKINSON FROM THE "PARADISUS" (1629) 160
NICHOLAS CULPEPER FROM "THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED" 166
FRONTISPIECE OF "THE CURIOUS DESTILLATORY," BY THOMAS
SHIRLEY, M.D., PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY
(1677) 174
THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS
CHAPTER I
THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS
"Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth."
WILLIAM BLAKE.
There is a certain pathos attached to the fragments from any great
wreck, and in studying the few Saxon manuscripts, treating of herbs,
which have survived to our day, we find their primary fascination not
so much in their beauty and interest as in the visions they conjure up
of those still older manuscripts which perished during the terrible
Danish invasions. That books on herbs were studied in England as early
as the eighth century is certain, for we know that Boniface, "the
Apostle of the Saxons," received letters from England asking him for
books on simples and complaining that it was difficult to obtain the
foreign herbs mentioned in those we already possessed.[2] But of these
manuscripts none have survived, the oldest we possess being of the
tenth century, and for our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon plant lore we look
chiefly to those four important manuscripts--the _Leech Book of Bald_,
the _Lacnunga_ and the Saxon translations of the _Herbarium of
Apuleius_ and the so-called +Peri Didaxeôn+.
Apart from their intrinsic fascination, there are certain
considerations which give these manuscripts a peculiar importance.
Herb lore and folk medicine lag not years, but centuries, behind the
knowledge of their own day. Within living memory our peasants were
using, and in the most remote parts of these islands they use still,
the herbal and other remedies of our Saxon ancestors. They even use
curiously similar charms. The herb lore recorded in these manuscripts
is the herb lore, not of the century in which they were written, but
of the dim past ages pictured in the oldest parts of _Widsith_ and
_Beowulf_. To the student of English plant lore, the _Herbarium of
Apuleius_ and the +Peri Didaxeôn+ are less interesting because they
are translations, but the more one studies the original Saxon writings
on herbs and their uses, the more one realises that, just as in
_Beowulf_ there are suggestions and traces of an age far older than
that in which the poem was written, so in these manuscripts are
embedded beliefs which carry us back to the dawn of history. It is
this which gives this plant lore its supreme interest. It is almost
overwhelming to recognise that possibly we have here fragments of the
plant lore of our ancestors who lived when Attila's hordes were
devastating Europe, and that in the charms and ceremonies connected
with the picking and administering of herbs we are carried back to
forms of religion so ancient that, compared to it, the worship of
Woden is modern. Further, it is only in these manuscripts that we find
this herb lore, for in the whole range of Saxon literature outside
them there is remarkably little mention of plant life. The great world
of nature, it is true, is ever present; the ocean is the background of
the action in both _Beowulf_ and _Cynewulf_, and the sound of the wind
and the sea is in every line. One is conscious of vast trackless
wastes of heath and moor, of impenetrable forests and terror-infested
bogs; but of the details of plant life there is scarcely a word. In
these manuscripts alone do we find what plant life meant to our
ancestors, and, as with all primitive nations, their belief in the
mystery of herbs is almost past our civilised understanding. Their
plant lore, hoary with age, is redolent of a time when the tribes were
still wandering on the mainland of Europe, and in these first records
of this plant lore there is the breath of mighty forests, of marsh
lands and of Nature in her wildest. We are swept back to an epoch when
man fought with Nature, wresting from her the land, and when the
unseen powers of evil resented this conquest of their domains. To the
early Saxons those unseen powers were an everyday reality. A
supernatural terror brooded over the trackless heaths, the dark mere
pools were inhabited by the water elves. In the wreathing mists and
driving storms of snow and hail they saw the uncouth "moor gangers,"
"the muckle mark steppers who hold the moors," or the stalking fiends
of the lonely places, creatures whose baleful eyes shone like flames
through the mist. To this day some of our place names in the more
remote parts of these islands recall the memory of those evil terrors.
In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens and
trolls, there are traces of even older terrors, when the first Teuton
settlers in Europe struggled with the aborigines who lived in caves,
hints as elusive as the phantom heroes in the Saxon poems, and as
unforgettable.
Still more remarkable is the fact that beneath the superstructure of
Christian rites to be used when the herbs were being picked or
administered we find traces not merely of the ancient heathen
religion, but of a religion older than that of Woden. It has been
emphasised by our most eminent authorities that in very early times
our ancestors had but few chief gods, and it is a remarkable fact that
there is no mention whatever of Woden in the whole range of Saxon
literature before the time of Alfred. In those earlier centuries they
seem to have worshipped a personification of Heaven, and Earth, the
wife of Heaven, and the Son, whom after ages called Thor. There were
also Nature deities, Hrede, the personification of the brightness of
Summer, and Eostra, the radiant creature of the Dawn. It will be
remembered that it was the worship, not of Balder, but of Eostra,
which the Christian missionaries found so deeply imbedded that they
adopted her name and transferred it to Easter. For this we have the
authority of Bede. Separate from these beneficent powers were the
destroying and harmful powers of Nature--darkness, storm, frost and
the deadly vapours of moorland and fen, personified in the giants, the
ogres, the furious witches that rode the winds and waves; in fact, the
whole horde of demons of sea and land and sky. It is the traces of
these most ancient forms of religion which give to the manuscripts
their strongest fascination.
Many of us miss all that is most worth learning in old books through
regarding anything in them that is unfamiliar as merely quaint, if not
ridiculous. This attitude seals a book as effectually and as
permanently as it seals a sensitive human being. There is only one way
of understanding these old writers, and that is to forget ourselves
entirely and to try to look at the world of nature as they did. It is
not "much learning" that is required, but sympathy and imagination. In
the case of these Saxon manuscripts we are repaid a thousandfold; for
they transport us to an age far older than our own, and yet in some
ways so young that we have lost its magic key. For we learn not only
of herbs and the endless uses our forefathers made of them, but, if we
try to read them with understanding, these books open for us a magic
casement through which we look upon the past bathed in a glamour of
romance. Our Saxon ancestors may have been a rude and hardy race, but
they did not live in an age of materialism as we do. In their writings
on herbs and their uses we see "as through a glass darkly" a time when
grown men believed in elves and goblins as naturally as they believed
in trees, an age when it was the belief of everyday folk that the air
was peopled with unseen powers of evil against whose machinations
definite remedies must be applied. They believed, as indeed the people
of all ancient civilisations have believed, that natural forces and
natural objects were endued with mysterious powers whom it was
necessary to propitiate by special prayers. Not only the stars of
heaven, but springs of water and the simple wayside herbs, were to
them directly associated with unseen beings. There are times when one
is reminded forcibly of that worship of Demeter, "nearer to the Earth
which some have thought they could discern behind the definitely
national mythology of Homer." They believed that the sick could be
cured by conjurations and charms, as firmly as we believe to-day in
curing them by suggestion--is there any real difference between these
methods?--and when one reads the charms which they used in
administering their herbs one cannot help wondering whether these were
handed down traditionally from the Sumerians, those ancient
inhabitants of Mesopotamia who five thousand years before Christ used
charms for curing the sick which have now been partially deciphered
from the cuneiform inscriptions. But before studying the plant lore
therein contained, it may be as well to take a preliminary survey of
the four most important manuscripts.
The oldest Saxon book dealing with the virtues of herbs which we
possess is the _Leech Book of Bald_, dating from about A.D. 900-950.
Unlike some other MS. herbals of which only a few tattered pages
remain, this perfect specimen of Saxon work has nothing fragile about
it. The vellum is as strong and in as good condition as when it first
lay clean and untouched under the hand of the scribe--Cild by
name--who penned it with such skill and loving care. One's imagination
runs riot when one handles this beautiful book, now over a thousand
years old, and wonders who were its successive owners and how it has
survived the wars and other destructive agencies through all these
centuries. But we only know that, at least for a time, it was
sheltered in that most romantic of all English monasteries,
Glastonbury.[3] This Saxon manuscript has a dignity which is unique,
for it is the oldest existing leech book written in the vernacular. In
a lecture delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1903,
Dr. J. F. Payne commented on the remarkable fact that the Anglo-Saxons
had a much wider knowledge of herbs than the doctors of Salerno, the
oldest school of medicine and oldest university in Europe. "No
treatise," he said, "of the School of Salerno contemporaneous with the
_Leech Book of Bald_ is known, so that the Anglo-Saxons had the credit
of priority. Their Leech Book was the first medical treatise written
in Western Europe which can be said to belong to modern history, that
is, which was produced after the decadence and decline of the
classical medicine, which belongs to ancient history.... It seems fair
to regard it [the Leech Book], in a sense, as the embryo of modern
English medicine, and at all events the earliest medical treatise
produced by any of the modern nations of Europe." The Anglo-Saxons
created a vernacular literature to which the continental nations at
that time could show no parallel, and in the branch of literature
connected with medicine, in those days based on a knowledge of herbs
(when it was not magic), their position was unique. Moreover, the fact
that the Leech Book was written in the vernacular is in itself
remarkable, for it points to the existence of a class of men who were
not Latin scholars and yet were able and willing to read books. The
Leech Book belongs to the literary period commonly known as the school
of Alfred. It was probably written shortly after Alfred's death, but
it is more than probable that it is a copy of a much older manuscript,
for what is known as the third book of the Leech Book is evidently a
shorter and older work incorporated by the scribe when he had finished
the Leech Book proper.
The book itself was written under the direction of one Bald, who, if
he were not a personal friend of King Alfred's, had at any rate access
to the king's correspondence; for one chapter consists of
prescriptions sent by Helias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, to the king.[4]
We learn the names of the first owner and scribe from lines in Latin
verse at the end of the second part of the MS.
"Bald is the owner of this book, which he ordered Cild to write,
Earnestly I pray here all men, in the name of Christ,
That no treacherous person take this book from me,
Neither by force nor by theft nor by any false statement.
Why? Because the richest treasure is not so dear to me
As my dear books which the Grace of Christ attends."
The book consists of 109 leaves and is written in a large, bold hand
and one or two of the initial letters are very faintly illuminated.
The writing is an exceptionally fine specimen of Saxon penmanship. On
many of the pages there are mysterious marks, but it is impossible to
conjecture their meaning. It has been suggested that they point to the
sources from which the book was compiled and were inserted by the
original owner.
The _Leech Book of Bald_ was evidently the manual of a Saxon doctor,
and he refers to two other doctors--Dun and Oxa by name--who had given
him prescriptions. The position of the leech in those days must have
been very trying, for he was subjected to the obviously unfair
competition of the higher clergy, many of whom enjoyed a reputation
for working miraculous cures.[5] The leech being so inferior in
position, it is not surprising that his medical knowledge did not
advance on scientific lines. He relied on the old heathen
superstitions, probably from an instinctive feeling that in pagan
religion, combined with the herb lore which had been handed down
through the ages, the mass of the people had a deep-rooted faith.
Nothing is more obvious in the Leech Book than the fact that the
virtues ascribed to the different herbs are based not on the personal
knowledge of the writer, but on the old herb lore. This gives the
Leech Book its special fascination; for it is the oldest surviving
manuscript in which we can learn the herb lore of our ancestors,
handed down to them from what dim past ages we can only surmise. We
have, therefore, to bear in mind that what may strike our modern minds
as quaint, or even grotesque, is in the majority of instances a
distorted form of lore which doubtless suffered many changes during
the early centuries of our era. Nearly all that is most fascinating in
the Leech Book is of very ancient Indo-Germanic or Eastern origin, but
one cannot help wondering how much the Saxons incorporated of the herb
lore of the ancient Britons. Does not Pliny tell us that the Britons
gathered herbs with such striking ceremonies that it would seem as
though the Britons had taught them to the Persians?
One cannot read Bald's manuscript without being struck by his
remarkable knowledge of native plants and garden herbs. We are
inferior to our continental neighbours in so many arts that it is
pleasant to find that in the ancient art of gardening and in their
knowledge of herbs our Saxon forefathers excelled. It has been pointed
out by eminent authorities that the Anglo-Saxons had names for, and
used, a far larger number of plants than the continental nations. In
the _Herbarium of Apuleius_, including the additions from Dioscorides,
only 185 plants are mentioned, and this was one of the standard works
of the early Middle Ages. In the _Herbarius_ of 1484, the earliest
herbal printed in Germany, only 150 plants are recorded, and in the
German _Herbarius_ of 1485 there are 380. But from various sources it
has been computed that the Anglo-Saxons had names for, and used, at
least 500 plants.[6] One feels instinctively that the love of flowers
and gardens was as deep-rooted in our ancestors as it is in our nation
to-day, and though we do not know exactly what they grew in their
gardens--which they called wyrt[gh]erd (literally, herb-yard)--we do
know that the marigolds, sunflowers, peonies, violets and
gilly-flowers which make the cottage gardens of England so gay and
full of colour to-day were also the commonest plants in the Saxon
gardens. Fashions in large gardens have changed throughout the
centuries, and there are stately gardens in this country famed the
world over. But in regard to our cottage gardens we are staunchly
conservative, and it is assuredly the cottage garden which is
characteristically English. Incidentally, one cannot help regretting
that so many of our old Saxon plant names have fallen into disuse.
"Waybroad," for instance, is much more descriptive than "plantain,"
which is misleading.[7] "Maythen" also is surely preferable to
"camomile," and "wergulu" is more characteristic of that fierce weed
than "nettle." Those of us who are gardeners will certainly agree that
"unfortraedde" is the right name for knotweed. And is not "joy of the
ground" a delightful name for periwinkle?
The oldest illustrated herbal which has come down to us from Saxon
times is the translation of the Latin _Herbarium Apuleii
Platonici_.[8] The original Latin work is believed to date from the
fifth century, though no copy so ancient as this is in existence now.
The name Apuleius Platonicus is possibly fictitious and nothing is
known of the writer, who was, of course, distinct from Apuleius
Madaurensis, the author of the _Golden Ass_. The Saxon translation of
this herbal (now in the British Museum) is supposed to date from A.D.
1000-1050, and belongs to the school of Ælfric of Canterbury. The
frontispiece is a coloured picture in which Plato is represented
holding a large volume which is being given him by Æsculapius and the
Centaur, and on the other side of the page is a blue circle spotted
with white and red, within which is the name of the book: "Herbarium
Apuleii Platonici quod accepit ab Escolapio et Chirone centauro
magistro Achillis." The book consists of 132 chapters, in each of
which a herb is described, and there are accompanying illustrations of
the herbs. Throughout the book there are also remarkable pictures of
snakes, scorpions and unknown winged creatures. It has been pointed
out that the figures of herbs are obviously not from the original
plants, but are copied from older figures, and these from others older
still, and one wonders what the original pictures were like. It is
interesting to think that perhaps the illustrations in this Saxon
herbal are directly descended, so to speak, from the drawings of
Cratevas,[9] Dionysius or Metrodorus, of whom Pliny tells us "They
drew the likeness of herbs and wrote under them their effects." The
picture of the lily is very attractive in spite of the fact that the
flowers are painted pale blue. The stamens in the figure stand out
beyond the petals and look like rays of light, with a general effect
that is curiously pleasing. One of the most interesting figures is
that of the mandrake (painted in a deep madder), which embodies the
old legend that it was death to dig up the root, and that therefore a
dog was tied to a rope and made to drag it up. It is the opinion of
some authorities that these figures show the influence of the school
represented by the two splendid Vienna manuscripts of Dioscorides
dating from the fifth and seventh centuries. There is no definite
evidence of this, and though the illustrations in the Saxon manuscript
show the influence of the classical tradition, they are poor compared
with those in the Vienna manuscript. To some extent at least the
drawings in this herbal must necessarily have been copies, for many of
the plants are species unknown in this country.
[Illustration: ÆSCULAPIUS PLATO AND A CENTAUR
From the Saxon translation of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_
(Cott. Vit., C. 3, folio 19_a_)]
The Saxon translation of the +Peri Didaxeôn+ (Harl. 6258) is a thin
volume badly mutilated in parts. Herr Max Löwenbeck[10] has shown that
this is in part translated from a treatise by an eleventh-century
writer, Petrocellus or Petronius, of the School of Salerno--the
original treatise being entitled _Practica Petrocelli Salernitani_.[11]
As has been pointed out by many eminent authorities, the School of
Salerno, being a survival of Greek medicine, was uncontaminated by
superstitious medicine. Consequently there are striking differences
between this and the other Saxon manuscripts. The large majority of the
herbs mentioned are those of Southern Europe, and the pharmacy is very
simple compared with the number of herbs in prescriptions of native
origin. As Dr. J. F. Payne[12] has pointed out, Herr Löwenbeck's
important discovery does not account for the whole of the English book.
The order of the chapters differs from that of the Salernitan writer;
there are passages not to be found in the _Practica_, and in some
places the English text gives a fuller reading. It is fairly evident
that the Saxon treatise is at least in part indebted to the
_Passionarius_ by Gariopontus, another Salernitan writer of the same
period.
The _Lacnunga_ (Harl. 585), an original work, and one of the oldest
and most interesting manuscripts, is a small, thick volume without any
illustrations. Some of the letters are illuminated and some are rudely
ornamented. At the top of the first page there is the inscription
"Liber Humfredi Wanley," and it is interesting, therefore, to realise
that the British Museum owes this treasure to the zealous antiquarian
whose efforts during the closing years of the seventeenth and early
years of the eighteenth century rescued so many valuable Saxon and
other MSS. from oblivion.[13]
To the student of folk lore and folk custom these sources of herb lore
are of remarkable interest for the light they throw on the beliefs and
customs of humble everyday people in Anglo-Saxon times. Of kings and
warriors, of bards and of great ladies we can read in other Saxon
literature, and all so vividly that we see their halls, the long
hearths on which the fires were piled, the openings in the roof
through which the smoke passed. We see the men with their "byrnies" of
ring mail, their crested helmets, their leather-covered shields and
deadly short swords. We see them and their womenkind wearing golden
ornaments at their feasts, the tables laden with boars' flesh and
venison and chased cups of ale and mead. We see these same halls at
night with the men sleeping, their "byrnies" and helmets hanging near
them, and in the dim light we can make out also the trophies of the
chase hanging on the walls. We read of their mighty deeds, and we know
at least something of the ideals and the thoughts of their great men
and heroes. But what of that vast number of the human kind who were
always in the background? What of the hewers of wood and drawers of
water, the swineherds, the shepherds, the carpenters, the hedgers and
cobblers? Is it not wonderful to think that in these manuscripts we
can learn, at least to some extent, what plant life meant to these
everyday folk? And even in these days to understand what plant life
means to the true countryman is to get into very close touch with him.
Not only has suburban life separated the great concentrated masses of
our people from their birthright of meadows, fields and woods; of
Nature, in her untamed splendour and mystery, most of them have never
had so much as a momentary glimpse. But in Saxon times even the towns
were not far from the unreclaimed marshes and forests, and to the
peasant in those days they were full not only of seen, but also of
unseen perils. There was probably not a Saxon child who did not know
something of the awe of waste places and impenetrable forests. Even
the hamlets lay on the very edge of forests and moors, and to the
peasant these were haunted by giant, elf and monster, as in the more
inaccessible parts of these islands they are haunted still to those
who retain something of primitive imagination. And when we study the
plant lore of these people we realise that prince and peasant alike
used the simple but mysterious herbs not only to cure them of both
physical and mental ills, but to guard them from these unseen
monsters. Of the reverence they paid to herbs we begin to have some
dim apprehension when we read of the ceremonies connected with the
picking and administering of them.
But, first, what can we learn of the beliefs as to the origin of
disease? Concerning this the great bulk of the folk lore in these
manuscripts is apparently of native Teutonic origin, or rather it
would be more correct to speak of its origin as Indo-Germanic; for the
same doctrines are to be found among all Indo-Germanic peoples, and
even in the Vedas, notably the Atharva Veda. Of these beliefs, the
doctrine of the "elf-shot" occupies a large space, the longest chapter
in the third book of the _Leech Book of Bald_ being entirely "against
elf-disease." We know from their literature that to our Saxon
ancestors waste places of moor and forest and marshes were the resort
of a host of supernatural creatures at enmity with mankind. In the
_Leech Book of Bald_ disease is largely ascribed to these elves, whose
shafts produced illness in their victims. We read of beorg-ælfen,
dun-ælfen, muntælfen. But our modern word "elf" feebly represents
these creatures, who were more akin to the "mark-stalkers," to the
creatures of darkness with loathsome eyes, rather than to the fairies
with whom we now associate the name. For the most part these elves of
ancient times were joyless impersonations and creatures not of sun but
of darkness and winter. In the gloom and solitude of the forest,
"where the bitter wormwood stood pale grey" and where "the hoar stones
lay thick," the black, giant elves had their dwelling. They claimed
the forest for their own and hated man because bit by bit he was
wresting the forest from them. Yet they made for man those mystic
swords of superhuman workmanship engraved with magic runes and dipped
when red hot in blood or in a broth of poisonous herbs and twigs. We
do not understand, we can only ask, why did they make them? What is
the meaning of the myth? The water elves recall the sea monsters who
attended Grendel's dam, impersonations of the fury of the waves, akin
to Hnikarr, and again other water elves of the cavernous bed of ocean,
primeval deadly creatures, inhabiting alike the sea and the desolate
fens, "where the elk-sedge waxed in the water." If some were akin to
the Formori of the baleful fogs in Irish mythic history and the
Mallt-y-nos, those she-demons of marshy lands immortalised by the
Welsh bards, creatures huge and uncouth "with grey and glaring eyes,"
there were others who exceeded in beauty anything human. When Cædmon
wrote of the beauty of Sarah, he described her as "sheen as an elf."
With the passing of the centuries we have well-nigh forgotten the
black elves, though they are still realities to the Highlander and too
real for him to speak of them. But have we not the descendants of the
sheen bright elves in the works of Shakespeare, Milton and Shelley?
One feels very sure that our Saxon ancestors would have understood
that glittering elf Ariel as few of us are capable of understanding
him. He is the old English bright elf. Did not Prospero subdue him
with magic, as our ancestors used magic songs in administering herbs
"to quell the elf"? Here is one such song from the _Leech Book of
Bald_, and at the end a conjuration to bury the elf in the earth.
"I have wreathed round the wounds
The best of healing wreaths
That the baneful sores may
Neither burn nor burst,
Nor find their way further,
Nor turn foul and fallow.
Nor thump and throle on,
Nor be wicked wounds,
Nor dig deeply down;
But he himself may hold
In a way to health.
Let it ache thee no more
Than ear in Earth acheth.
"Sing also this many times, 'May earth bear on thee with all her might
and main.'"--_Leech Book of Bald_, III. 63.
This was for one "in the water elf disease," and we read that a person
so afflicted would have livid nails and tearful eyes, and would look
downwards. Amongst the herbs to be administered when the charm was
sung over him were a yew-berry, lupin, helenium, marsh mallow, dock
elder, wormwood and strawberry leaves.
Goblins and nightmare were regarded as at least akin to elves, and we
find the same herbs were to be used against them, betony being of
peculiar efficacy against "monstrous nocturnal visions and against
frightful visions and dreams."[14] The malicious elves did not confine
their attacks to human beings; references to elf-shot cattle are
numerous. I quote the following from the chapter "against elf
disease."
"For that ilk [_i. e._ for one who is elf-shot].
"Go on Thursday evening when the sun is set where thou
knowest that helenium stands, then sing the Benedicite and
Pater Noster and a litany and stick thy knife into the wort,
make it stick fast and go away; go again when day and night
just divide; at the same period go first to church and cross
thyself and commend thyself to God; then go in silence and,
though anything soever of an awful sort or man meet thee,
say not thou to him any word ere thou come to the wort which
on the evening before thou markedst; then sing the
Benedicite and the Pater Noster and a litany, delve up the
wort, let the knife stick in it; go again as quickly as thou
art able to church and let it lie under the altar with the
knife; let it lie till the sun be up, wash it afterwards,
and make into a drink with bishopwort and lichen off a
crucifix; boil in milk thrice, thrice pour holy water upon
it and sing over it the Pater Noster, the Credo and the
Gloria in Excelsis Deo, and sing upon it a litany and score
with a sword round about it on three sides a cross, and then
after that let the man drink the wort; Soon it will be well
with him."--_Leech Book_, III. 62.
The instructions for a horse or cattle that are elf-shot runs thus:--
"If a horse or other neat be elf-shot take sorrel-seed or
Scotch wax, let a man sing twelve Masses over it and put
holy water on the horse or on whatsoever neat it be; have
the worts always with thee. For the same take the eye of a
broken needle, give the horse a prick with it, no harm shall
come."--_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 88.
Another prescription for an elf-shot horse runs thus:--
"If a horse be elf-shot, then take the knife of which the
haft is the horn of a fallow ox and on which are three brass
nails, then write upon the horse's forehead Christ's mark
and on each of the limbs which thou mayst feel at: then take
the left ear, prick a hole in it in silence, this thou shalt
do; then strike the horse on the back, then will it be
whole.--And write upon the handle of the knife these words--
"Benedicite omnia opera Domini dominum.
"Be the elf what it may, this is mighty for him to
amend."--_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 65.[15]
Closely allied to the doctrine of the elf-shot is that of "flying
venom." It is, of course, possible to regard the phrase as the graphic
Anglo-Saxon way of describing infectious diseases; but the various
synonymous phrases, "the on-flying things," "the loathed things that
rove through the land," suggest something of more malignant activity.
As a recent leading article in _The Times_ shows, we are as a matter
of fact not much wiser than our Saxon ancestors as to the origin of an
epidemic such as influenza.[16] Indeed, to talk of "catching" a cold
or any infectious disease would have struck an Anglo-Saxon as
ludicrous, mankind being rather the victims of "flying venom." In the
alliterative lay in the _Lacnunga_, part of which is given below, the
wind is described as blowing these venoms, which produced disease in
the bodies on which they lighted, their evil effects being
subsequently blown away by the magician's song and the efficacy of
salt and water and herbs. This is generally supposed to be in its
origin a heathen lay of great antiquity preserved down to Christian
times, when allusions to the new religion were inserted. It is written
in the Wessex dialect and is believed to be of the tenth century, but
it is undoubtedly a reminiscence of some far older lay. The lay or
charm is in praise of nine sacred herbs (one a tree)--mugwort,
waybroad (plantain), stime (watercress), atterlothe (?), maythen
(camomile), wergulu (nettle), crab apple, chervil and fennel.
"These nine attack
against nine venoms.
A worm came creeping,
he tore asunder a man.
Then took Woden
nine magic twigs,
[&] then smote the serpent
that he in nine [bits] dispersed.
Now these nine herbs have power
against nine magic outcasts
against nine venoms
& against nine flying things
[& have might] against the loathed things
that over land rove.
Against the red venoms
against the runlan [?] venom
against the white venom
against the blue [?] venom
against the yellow venom
against the green venom
against the dusky venom
against the brown venom
against the purple venom.
Against worm blast
against water blast
against thorn blast
against thistle blast
Against ice blast
Against venom blast
. . . . . . .
if any venom come
flying from east
or any come from north
[or any from south]
or any from west
over mankind
I alone know a running river
and the nine serpents behold [it]
All weeds must
now to herbs give way,
Seas dissolve
[and] all salt water
when I this venom
from thee blow."[17]
In the chapter in the _Leech Book of Bald_[18] containing the
prescriptions sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to King Alfred, we
find among the virtues of the "white stone" that it is "powerful
against flying venom and against all uncouth things," and in another
passage[19] that these venoms are particularly dangerous "fifteen
nights ere Lammas and after it for five and thirty nights: leeches who
were wisest have taught that in that month no man should anywhere
weaken his body except there were a necessity for it." In the most
ancient source of Anglo-Saxon medicine--the _Lacnunga_--we find the
following "salve" for flying venom:--
"A salve for flying venom. Take a handful of hammer wort and
a handful of maythe (camomile) and a handful of waybroad
(plantain) and roots of water dock, seek those which will
float, and one eggshell full of clean honey, then take clean
butter, let him who will help to work up the salve melt it
thrice: let one sing a mass over the worts, before they are
put together and the salve is wrought up."[20]
But it is in the doctrine of the worm as the ultimate source of
disease that we are carried back to the most ancient of sagas. The
dragon and the worm, the supreme enemy of man, which play so
dominating a part in Saxon literature, are here set down as the source
of all ill. In the alliterative lay in the _Lacnunga_ the opening
lines describe the war between Woden and the Serpent. Disease arose
from the nine fragments into which he smote the serpent, and these
diseases, blown by the wind, are counteracted by the nine magic twigs
and salt water and herbs with which the disease is again blown away
from the victim by the power of the magician's song. This is the
atmosphere of the great earth-worm Fafnir in the Volsunga Saga and the
dragon in all folk tales, the great beast with whom the heroes of all
nations have contended. Further, it is noteworthy that not only in
Anglo-Saxon medicine, but for many centuries afterwards, even minor
ailments were ascribed to the presence of a worm--notably toothache.
In the _Leech Book_ we find toothache ascribed to a worm in the tooth
(see _Leech Book_, II. 121). It is impossible in a book of this size
to deal with the comparative folk lore of this subject, but in passing
it is interesting to recall an incantation for toothache from the
Babylonian cuneiform texts[21] in which we find perhaps the oldest
example of this belief.
"The Marshes created the Worm,
Came the Worm and wept before Shamash,
What wilt thou give me for my food?
What wilt thou give me to devour?
. . . . . . .
Let me drink among the teeth
And set me on the gums,
That I may devour the blood of the teeth
And of the gums destroy their strength.
Then shall I hold the bolt of the door.
. . . . . . .
So must thou say this, O Worm,
May Ea smite thee with the might of his fist."
Closely interwoven with these elements of Indo-Germanic origin we find
the ancient Eastern doctrine which ascribes disease to demoniac
possession. The exorcisms were originally heathen charms, and even in
the _Leech Book_ there are many interesting survivals of these,
although Christian rites have to a large extent been substituted for
them. Both mandrake and periwinkle were supposed to be endowed with
mysterious powers against demoniacal possession. At the end of the
description of the mandrake in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_ there is
this prescription:--
"For witlessness, that is devil sickness or demoniacal
possession, take from the body of this same wort mandrake by
the weight of three pennies, administer to drink in warm
water as he may find most convenient--soon he will be
healed."--_Herb. Ap._, 32.
Of periwinkle we read:--
"This wort is of good advantage for many purposes, that is
to say first against devil sickness and demoniacal
possessions and against snakes and wild beasts and against
poisons and for various wishes and for envy and for terror
and that thou mayst have grace, and if thou hast the wort
with thee thou shalt be prosperous and ever acceptable. This
wort thou shalt pluck thus, saying, 'I pray thee, vinca
pervinca, thee that art to be had for thy many useful
qualities, that thou come to me glad blossoming with thy
mainfulness, that thou outfit me so that I be shielded and
ever prosperous and undamaged by poisons and by water;' when
thou shalt pluck this wort thou shalt be clean of every
uncleanness, and thou shalt pick it when the moon is nine
nights old and eleven nights and thirteen nights and thirty
nights and when it is one night old."--_Herb. Ap._
[Illustration: MANDRAKE FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Sloane 1975, folio 49_a_)]
In the treatment of disease we find that the material remedies, by
which I mean remedies devoid of any mystic meaning, are with few
exceptions entirely herbal. The herb drinks were made up with ale,
milk or vinegar, many of the potions were made of herbs mixed with
honey, and ointments were made of herbs worked up with butter. The
most scientific prescription is that for a vapour bath,[22] and there
are suggestions for what may become fashionable once more--herb baths.
The majority of the prescriptions are for common ailments, and one
cannot help being struck by the number there are for broken heads,
bleeding noses and bites of mad dogs. However ignorant one may be of
medicine, it is impossible to read these old prescriptions without
realising that our ancestors were an uncommonly hardy race, for the
majority of the remedies would kill any of us modern weaklings,
even if in robust health when they were administered. At times one
cannot help wondering whether in those days, as not infrequently
happens now, the bulletin was issued that "the operation was quite
successful, but the patient died of shock!" And, as further evidence
of the old truth that there is nothing new under the sun, it is
pleasant to find that doctors, even in Saxon days, prescribed
"carriage exercise," and moreover endeavoured to sweeten it by
allowing the patient to "lap up honey" first. This prescription runs
thus:--
"Against want of appetite. Let them, after the night's fast,
lap up honey, and let them seek for themselves fatigue in
riding on horseback or in a wain or such conveyance as they
may endure."--_Leech Book_, II. 7.
In the later herbals, "beauty" recipes are, as is well known, a
conspicuous feature, but they find a place also in these old
manuscripts. In the third book (the oldest part) of the _Leech Book_
there is a prescription for sunburn which runs thus:--
"For sunburn boil in butter tender ivy twigs, smear
therewith."--_Leech Book_, III. 29.
And in _Leech Book_ II. we find this prescription:--
"That all the body may be of a clean and glad and bright
hue, take oil and dregs of old wine equally much, put them
into a mortar, mingle well together and smear the body with
this in the sun."--_Leech Book_, II. 65.
Prescriptions for hair falling off are fairly numerous, and there are
even two--somewhat drastic--prescriptions for hair which is too thick.
Sowbread and watercress were both used to make hair grow, and in
_Leech Book_ I. there is this prescription:--
"If a man's hair fall off, work him a salve. Take the mickle
wolf's bane and viper's bugloss and the netherward part of
burdock, work the salve out of that wort and out of all
these and out of that butter of which no water hath come. If
hair fall off, boil the polypody fern and foment the head
with that so warm. In case that a man be bald, Plinius the
mickle leech saith this leechdom: 'Take dead bees, burn them
to ashes, add oil upon that, seethe very long over gledes,
then strain, wring out and take leaves of willow, pound
them, pour the juice into the oil; boil again for a while on
gledes, strain them, smear therewith after the
bath.'"--_Leech Book_, I. 87.
The two prescriptions for hair which is too thick are in the same
chapter:--
"In order that the hair may not wax, take emmets' eggs, rub
them up, smudge on the place, never will any hair come up
there." Again: "if hair be too thick, take a swallow, burn
it to ashes under a tile and have the ashes shed on."
There are more provisions against diseases of the eye than against any
other complaint, and it is probably because of the prevalence of these
in olden days that we still have so many of the superstitions
connected with springs of water. Both maythen (camomile) and wild
lettuce were used for the eyes. In the following for mistiness of eyes
there is a touch of pathos:--
"For mistiness of eyes, many men, lest their eyes should
suffer the disease, look into cold water and then are able
to see far.... The eyes of an old man are not sharp of
sight, then shall he wake up his eyes with rubbings, with
walkings, with ridings, either so that a man bear him or
convey him in a wain. And they shall use little and careful
meats and comb their heads and drink wormwood before they
take food. Then shall a salve be wrought for unsharpsighted
eyes; take pepper and beat it and a somewhat of salt and
wine; that will be a good salve."
One prescription is unique, for the "herb" which one is directed to
use is not to be found in any other herbal in existence. This is "rind
from Paradise." There is a grim humour about the scribe's comment, and
one cannot help wondering what was the origin of the prescription:--
"Some teach us against bite of adder, to speak one word
'faul.' It may not hurt him. Against bite of snake if the
man procures and eateth rind which cometh out of Paradise,
no venom will hurt him. Then said he that wrote this book
that the rind was hard gotten."
These manuscripts are so full of word pictures of the treatment of
disease that one feels if one were transported back to those days it
would in most cases be possible to tell at a glance the "cures"
various people were undergoing. Let us visit a Saxon hamlet and go and
see the sick folk in the cottages. On our way we meet a man with a
fawn's skin decorated with little bunches of herbs dangling from his
shoulders, and we know that he is a sufferer from nightmare.[23]
Another has a wreath of clove-wort tied with a red thread round his
neck. He is a lunatic, but, as the moon is on the wane, his family
hope that the wearing of these herbs will prove beneficial. We enter a
dark one-roomed hut, the dwelling of one of the swineherds, but he is
not at his work; for it seemed to him that his head turned about and
that he was faring with turned brains. He had consulted the leech and,
suggestion cures being then rather more common than now, the leech had
advised him to sit calmly by his fireside with a linen cloth wrung out
in spring water on his head and to wait till it was dry. He does so,
and, to quote the words with which nearly all Saxon prescriptions end,
we feel "it will soon be well with him." Let us wend our way to the
cobbler, a sullen, taciturn man who finds his lively young wife's
chatter unendurable. We find him looking more gloomy than usual, for
he has eaten nothing all day and now sits moodily consuming a raw
radish. But there is purpose in this. Does not the ancient leechdom
say that, if a radish be eaten raw after fasting all day, no woman's
chatter the next day can annoy? In another cottage we find that a
patient suffering from elf-shot is to be smoked with the fumes of
herbs. A huge quern stone which has been in the fire on the hearth
all day is dragged out, the prepared herbs--wallwort and mugwort--are
scattered upon it and also underneath, then cold water is poured on
and the patient is reeked with the steam "as hot as he can endure
it."[24] Smoking sick folk, especially for demoniac possession, is a
world-wide practice and of very ancient origin. There is no space here
to attempt to touch on the comparative folk lore of this subject.
Moreover, fumigating the sick with herbs is closely akin to the
burning of incense. Even in ancient Babylonian days fumigating with
herbs was practised.[25] It was very common all through the Middle
Ages in most parts of Europe, and that it has not even yet died out is
shown by the extract from _The Times_ given below.[26] I have
purposely put in juxtaposition the translation of the ancient
Babylonian tablet and the extract from _The Times_.
It is noteworthy that not only human beings, but cattle and swine
were smoked with the fumes of herbs. In the _Lacnunga_, for sick
cattle we find--"Take the wort, put it upon gledes and fennel and
hassuck and 'cotton' and incense. Burn all together on the side on
which the wind is. Make it reek upon the cattle. Make five crosses of
hassuck grass, set them on four sides of the cattle and one in the
middle. Sing about the cattle the Benedicite and some litanies and the
Pater Noster. Sprinkle holy water upon them, burn about them incense
and cotton and let someone set a value on the cattle, let the owner
give the tenth penny in the Church for God, after that leave them to
amend; do this thrice."--_Lacnunga_, 79.
"To preserve swine from sudden death sing over them four masses, drive
the swine to the fold, hang the worts upon the four sides and upon the
door, also burn them, adding incense and make the reek stream over the
swine."--_Lacnunga_, 82.
* * * * *
Herbs used as amulets have always played a conspicuous part in folk
medicine, and our Saxon ancestors used them, as all ancient races have
used them, not merely to cure definite diseases but also as protection
against the unseen powers of evil,[27] to preserve the eyesight, to
cure lunacy, against weariness when going on a journey, against being
barked at by dogs, for safety from robbers, and in one prescription
even to restore a woman stricken with speechlessness. The use of herbs
as amulets to cure diseases has almost died out in this country, but
the use of them as charms to ensure good luck survives to this
day--notably in the case of white heather and four-leaved clover.
There is occasionally the instruction to bind on the herb with red
wool. For instance, a prescription against headache in the third book
of the _Leech Book_ enjoins binding waybroad, which has been dug up
without iron before sunrise, round the head "with a red fillet."
Binding on with red wool is a very ancient and widespread custom.[28]
Red was the colour sacred to Thor and it was also the colour abhorred
not only by witches in particular but by all the powers of darkness
and evil. An ancient Assyrian eye charm prescribes binding "pure
strands of red wool which have been brought by the pure hand of ... on
the right hand," and down to quite recent times even in these islands
tying on with red wool was a common custom.
Besides their use as amulets, we also find instructions for hanging
herbs up over doors, etc., for the benefit not only of human beings
but of cattle also. Of mugwort we read in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_,
"And if a root of this wort be hung over the door of any house then
may not any man damage the house."
"Of Croton oil plant. For hail and rough weather to turn
them away. If thou hast in thy possession this wort which is
named 'ricinus' and which is not a native of England, if
thou hangest some seed of it in thine house or have it or
its seed in any place whatsoever, it turneth away the
tempestuousness of hail, and if thou hangest its seed on a
ship, to that degree wonderful it is, that it smootheth
every tempest. This wort thou shalt take saying thus, 'Wort
ricinus I pray that thou be at my songs and that thou turn
away hails and lightning bolts and all tempests through the
name of Almighty God who hight thee to be produced'; and
thou shalt be clean when thou pluckest this herb."--_Herb.
Ap._, 176.
"Against temptation of the fiend, a wort hight red niolin,
red stalk, it waxeth by running water; if thou hast it on
thee and under thy head and bolster and over thy house door
the devil may not scathe thee within nor without."--_Leech
Book_, III. 58.
"To preserve swine from sudden death take the worts lupin,
bishopwort, hassuck grass, tufty thorn, vipers bugloss,
drive the swine to the fold, hang the worts upon the four
sides and upon the door."--_Lacnunga_, 82.
The herbs in commonest use as amulets were betony, vervain, peony,
yarrow, mugwort and waybroad (plantain). With the exception of
vervain, no herb was more highly prized than betony. The treatise on
it in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_ is supposed to be an abridged copy
of a treatise on the virtues of this plant written by Antonius Musa,
physician to the Emperor Augustus. No fewer than twenty-nine uses of
it are given, and in the Saxon translation this herb is described as
being "good whether for a man's soul or his body." Vervain was one of
the herbs held most sacred by the Druids and, as the herbals of Gerard
and Parkinson testify, it was in high repute even as late as the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It has never been satisfactorily
identified, though many authorities incline to the belief that it was
verbena. In Druidical times libations of honey had to be offered to
the earth from which it was dug, mystic ceremonies attended the
digging of it and the plant was lifted out with the left hand. This
uprooting had always to be performed at the rising of the dog star and
when neither the sun nor the moon was shining. Why the humble waybroad
should occupy so prominent a place in Saxon herb lore it is difficult
to understand. It is one of the nine sacred herbs in the alliterative
lay in the _Lacnunga_, and the epithets "mother of worts" and "open
from eastwards" are applied to it. The latter curious epithet is also
applied to it in _Lacnunga_ 46,--"which spreadeth open towards the
East." Waybroad has certainly wonderfully curative powers, especially
for bee-stings, but otherwise it has long since fallen from its high
estate. Peony throughout the Middle Ages was held in high repute for
its protective powers, and even during the closing years of the last
century country folk hung beads made of its roots round children's
necks.[29] Yarrow is one of the aboriginal English plants, and from
time immemorial it has been used in incantations and by witches.
Country folk still regard it as one of our most valuable herbs,
especially for rheumatism. Mugwort, which was held in repute
throughout the Middle Ages for its efficacy against unseen powers of
evil, is one of the nine sacred herbs in the alliterative lay in the
_Lacnunga_, where it is described thus:--
"Eldest of worts
Thou hast might for three
And against thirty
For venom availest
For flying vile things,
Mighty against loathed ones
That through the land rove."
Harleian MS. 585.
[Illustration: (1) ARTEMISIA AND (2) BLACKBERRY, FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Sloane 1975, folio 37_a_)]
With the notable exception of vervain, it is curious how little
prominence is given in Saxon plant lore to the herbs which were held
most sacred by the Druids, and yet it is scarcely credible that some
of their wonderful lore should not have been assimilated. But in these
manuscripts little or no importance attaches to mistletoe, holly,
birch or ivy. There is no mention of mistletoe as a sacred herb.[30]
We find some mention of selago, generally identified with
_lycopodium selago_, of which Pliny tells us vaguely that it was "like
savin." The gathering of it had to be accompanied in Druid days with
mystic ceremonies. The Druid had his feet bare and was clad in white,
and the plant could not be cut with iron, nor touched with the naked
hand. So great were its powers that it was called "the gift of God."
Nor is there any mention in Saxon plant lore of the use of _sorbus
aucuparia_, which the Druids planted near their monolithic circles as
protection against unseen powers of darkness. There is, however, one
prescription which may date back to the Roman occupation of Britain.
It runs thus: "Take nettles, and seethe them in oil, smear and rub all
thy body therewith; the cold will depart away."[31] It has always been
believed that one of the varieties of nettle (_Urtica pilulifera_) was
introduced into England by the Roman soldiers, who brought the seed of
it with them. According to the tradition, they were told that the cold
in England was unendurable; so they brought these seeds in order to
have a plentiful supply of nettles wherewith to rub their bodies and
thereby keep themselves warm. Possibly this prescription dates back to
that time.
From what hoary antiquity the charms and incantations which we find in
these manuscripts have come down to us we cannot say. Their atmosphere
is that of palæolithic cave-drawings, for they are redolent of the
craft of sorcerers and they suggest those strange cave markings which
no one can decipher. Who can say what lost languages are embedded in
these unintelligible words and single letters, or what is their
meaning? To what ancient ceremonies do they pertain, and who were the
initiated who alone understood them? At present it is all mysterious,
though perhaps one day we shall discover both their sources and their
meaning. They show no definite traces of the Scandinavian rune-lays
concerning herbs, though one of the charms is in runic characters. It
is noteworthy that in the third book, which is evidently much older
than the first two parts of the _Leech Book_, the proportion of
heathen charms is exceptionally large. In one prescription we find the
names of two heathen idols, Tiecon and Leleloth, combined with a later
Christian interpolation of the names of the four gospellers. The charm
is in runic characters and is to be followed by a prayer. Many of the
mystic sentences are wholly incomprehensible, in others we find
heathen names such as Lilumenne, in others a string of words which may
be a corrupt form of some very ancient language. Thus a lay to be sung
in case a man or beast drinks an insect runs thus:--"Gonomil, orgomil,
marbumil, marbsai, tofeth," etc.[32]
If some of the charms have a malignant sound, others were probably as
soothing in those days as those gems are still which have survived in
our inimitable nursery rhymes.
For instance, the following has for us no meaning, but even in the
translation it has something of the curious effect of the words in the
original. A woman who cannot rear her child is instructed to
say--"Everywhere I carried for me the famous kindred doughty one with
this famous meat doughty one, so I will have it for me and go home."
In the _Lacnunga_ there is a counting-out charm which is a mixture of
an ancient heathen charm combined with a Christian rite at the end.
"Nine were Noddes sisters, then the nine came to be eight,
and the eight seven, and the seven six, and the six five,
and the five four, and the four three, and the three two,
and the two one, and the one none. This may be medicine for
thee from scrofula and from worm and from every mischief.
Sing also the Benedicite nine times."--_Lacnunga_, 95.[33]
One of the most remarkable narrative charms is that for warts copied
below from the _Lacnunga_. It is to be sung first into the left ear,
then into the right ear, then above the man's poll, then "let one who
is a maiden go to him and hang it upon his neck, do so for three days,
it will soon be well with him."
"Here came entering
A spider wight.
He had his hands upon his hams.
He quoth that thou his hackney wert.
Lay thee against his neck.
They began to sail off the land.
As soon as they off the land came, then began they to cool.
Then came in a wild beast's sister.
Then she ended
And oaths she swore that never could this harm the sick, nor him
who could get at this charm, nor him who had skill to sing this
charm. Amen. Fiat."--_Lacnunga_, 56.
Of the world-wide custom of charming disease from the patient and
transferring it to some inanimate object we find numerous examples.
This custom is not only of very ancient origin, but persisted until
recent times even in this country. As commonly practised in
out-of-the-way parts of Great Britain it was believed that the disease
transferred to an inanimate object would be contracted by the next
person who picked it up, but in the Saxon herbals we find an
apparently older custom of transferring the disease to "running water"
(suggestive of the Israelitish scapegoat), and also that of throwing
the blood from the wound across the wagon way. These charms for
transferring disease seem originally to have been associated with a
considerable amount of ceremonial. For instance, in those to cure the
bite of a hunting spider we find that a certain number of
scarifications are to be struck (and in both cases an odd
number--three and five); in the case of the five scarifications, "one
on the bite and four round about it," the blood is to be caught in "a
green spoon of hazel-wood," and the blood is to be thrown "in silence"
over a wagon way. In the _Lacnunga_ there are traces of the actual
ceremonial of transferring the disease, and the Christian prayer has
obviously been substituted for an older heathen one. The charm is in
unintelligible words and is followed by the instruction, "Sing this
nine times and the Pater Noster nine times over a barley loaf and give
it to the horse to eat." In a "salve against the elfin race" it is
noticeable that the herbs, after elaborate preparation, are not
administered to the patient at all, but are thrown into running water.
"A salve against the elfin race and nocturnal goblin
visitors: take wormwood, lupin.... Put these worts into a
vessel, set them under the altar, sing over them nine
masses, boil them in butter and sheep's grease, add much
holy salt, strain through a cloth, throw the worts into
running water."--_Leech Book_, III. 61.
One charm in the _Lacnunga_ which is perhaps not too long to quote
speaks of some long-lost tale. It appears to be a fragment of a
popular lay, and one wonders how many countless generations of our
ancestors sang it, and what it commemorates:--
"Loud were they loud, as over the land they rode,
Fierce of heart were they, as over the hill they rode.
Shield thee now thyself; from this spite thou mayst escape thee!
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Underneath the linden stood he, underneath the shining shield,
While the mighty women mustered up their strength;
And the spears they send screaming through the air!
Back again to them will I send another.
Arrow forth a-flying from the front against them;
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Sat the smith thereat, smoke a little seax out.
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Six the smiths that sat there-- making slaughter-spears:
Out little spear, in be not spear!
If herein there hide flake of iron hard,
Of a witch the work, it shall melt away.
Wert thou shot into the skin, or shot into the flesh,
Wert thou shot into the blood, or shot into the bone,
Wert thou shot into the limb-- never more thy life be teased!
If it were the shot of Esa, or it were of elves the shot
Or it were of hags the shot; help I bring to thee.
This to boot for Esa-shot, this to boot for elfin-shot.
This to boot for shot of hags! Help I bring to thee.
Flee witch to the wild hill top ... ...
But thou--be thou hale, and help thee the Lord."
Who were these six smiths and who were the witches? One thinks of that
mighty Smith Weyland in the palace of Nidad king of the Niars, of the
queen's fear of his flashing eyes and the maiming of him by her cruel
orders, and of the cups he made from the skulls of her sons and gems
from their eyes. We think of these as old tales, but instinct tells us
that they are horribly real. We may not know how that semi-divine
smith made himself wings, but that he flew over the palace and never
returned we do not doubt for an instant. To the fairy stories which
embody such myths children of unnumbered generations have listened,
and they demand them over and over again because they, too, are sure
that they are real.
Nor is the mystery of numbers lacking in these herbal prescriptions,
particularly the numbers three and nine. In the alliterative lay of
the nine healing herbs this is very conspicuous. Woden, we are told,
smote the serpent with nine magic twigs, the serpent was broken into
nine parts, from which the wind blew the nine flying venoms. There are
numerous instances of the patient being directed to take nine of each
of the ingredients or to take the herb potion itself for three or nine
days. Or it is directed that an incantation is to be said or sung
three or nine times, or that three or nine masses are to be sung over
the herbs. This mystic use of three and nine is conspicuous in the
following prescription:--
"Against dysentery, a bramble of which both ends are in the
earth take the newer root, delve it up, cut up nine chips
with the left hand and sing three times the Miserere mei
Deus and nine times the Pater Noster, then take mugwort and
everlasting, boil these three worts and the chips in milk
till they get red, then let the man sip at night fasting a
pound dish full ... let him rest himself soft and wrap
himself up warm; if more need be let him do so again, if
thou still need do it a third time, thou wilt not need
oftener."--_Leech Book_, II. 65.
The leechdom for the use of dwarf elder against a snake-bite runs
thus:--[34]
"For rent by snake take this wort and ere thou carve it off
hold it in thine hand and say thrice nine times Omnes malas
bestias canto, that is in our language Enchant and overcome
all evil wild deer; then carve it off with a very sharp
knife into three parts."--_Herb. Ap._, 93.
Some of the most remarkable passages in the manuscripts are those
concerning the ceremonies to be observed both in the picking and in
the administering of herbs. What the mystery of plant life which has
so deeply affected the minds of men in all ages and of all
civilisations meant to our ancestors, we can but dimly apprehend as we
study these ceremonies. They carry us back to that worship of earth
and the forces of Nature which prevailed when Woden was yet unborn.
That Woden was the chief god of the tribes on the mainland is
indisputable, but even in the hierarchy of ancestors reverenced as
semi-divine the Saxons themselves looked to Sceaf rather than to
Woden, who himself was descended from Sceaf. There are few more
haunting legends than that of our mystic forefather, the little boy
asleep on a sheaf of corn who, in a richly adorned vessel which moved
neither by sails nor oars, came to our people out of the great deep
and was hailed by them as their king. Did not Alfred himself claim him
as his primeval progenitor, the founder of our race? There is no
tangible link between his descendant Woden and the worship of earth,
but the sheaf of corn, the symbol of Sceaf, carries us straight back
to Nature worship. Sceaf takes his fitting place as the semi-divine
ancestor with the lesser divinities such as Hrede and Eostra, goddess
of the radiant dawn. It is to this age that the ceremonies in the
picking of the herbs transport us, to the mystery of the virtues of
herbs, the fertility of earth, the never-ceasing conflict between the
beneficent forces of sun and summer and the evil powers of the long,
dark northern winters. Closely intertwined with Nature worship we find
the later Christian rites and ceremonies. For the new teaching did not
oust the old, and for many centuries the mind of the average man
halted half-way between the two faiths. If he accepted Christ he did
not cease to fear the great hierarchy of unseen powers of Nature, the
worship of which was bred in his very bone. The ancient festivals of
Yule and Eostra continued under another guise and polytheism still
held its sway. The devil became one with the gloomy and terrible in
Nature, with the malignant elves and dwarfs. Even with the warfare
between the beneficent powers of sun and the fertility of Nature and
the malignant powers of winter, the devil became associated. Nor did
men cease to believe in the Wyrd, that dark, ultimate fate goddess
who, though obscure, lies at the back of all Saxon belief. It was in
vain that the Church preached against superstitions. Egbert,
Archbishop of York, in his Penitential, strictly forbade the gathering
of herbs with incantations and enjoined the use of Christian rites,
but it is probable that even when these manuscripts were written, the
majority at least of the common folk in these islands, though
nominally Christian, had not deserted their ancient ways of
thought.[35] When the Saxon peasant went to gather his healing herbs
he may have used Christian prayers[36] and ceremonies, but he did not
forget the goddess of the dawn. It is noteworthy how frequently we
find the injunction that the herbs must be picked at sunrise or when
day and night divide, how often stress is laid upon looking towards
the east, and turning "as the sun goeth from east to south and west."
In many there is the instruction that the herb is to be gathered
"without use of iron" or "with gold and with hart's horn" (emblems of
the sun's rays). It is curious how little there is of moon lore. In
some cases the herbs are to be gathered in silence, in others the man
who gathers them is not to look behind him--a prohibition which occurs
frequently in ancient superstitions. The ceremonies are all mysterious
and suggestive, but behind them always lies the ancient ineradicable
worship of Nature. To what dim past does that cry, "Erce, Erce, Erce,
Mother of Earth" carry us?
"Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth!
May the All-Wielder, Ever Lord grant thee
Acres a-waxing, upwards a-growing
Pregnant [with corn] and plenteous in strength;
Hosts of [grain] shafts and of glittering plants!
Of broad barley the blossoms
And of white wheat ears waxing,
Of the whole earth the harvest!
Let be guarded the grain against all the ills
That are sown o'er the land by the sorcery men,
Nor let cunning women change it nor a crafty man."
And that other ancient verse:--
"Hail be thou, Earth, Mother of men!
In the lap of the God be thou a-growing!
Be filled with fodder for fare-need of men!"
It is of these two invocations that Stopford Brooke (whose
translations I have used) writes: "These are very old heathen
invocations used, I daresay, from century to century and from far
prehistoric times by all the Teutonic farmers. Who 'Erce' is remains
obscure. But the Mother of Earth seems to be here meant, and she is a
person who greatly kindles our curiosity. To touch her is like
touching empty space, so far away is she. At any rate some Godhead or
other seems here set forth under her proper name. In the Northern
Cosmogony, Night is the Mother of Earth. But Erce cannot be Night. She
is (if Erce be a proper name) bound up with agriculture. Grimm
suggests Eorce, connected with the Old High German 'erchan' = simplex.
He also makes a bold guess that she may be the same as a divine dame
in Low Saxon districts called Herke or Harke, who dispenses earthly
goods in abundance, and acts in the same way as Berhta and Holda--an
earth-goddess, the lady of the plougher and sower and reaper. In the
Mark she is called Frau Harke. Montanus draws attention to the
appearance of this charm in a convent at Corvei, in which this line
begins--'Eostar, Eostar, eordhan modor.' ... The name remains
mysterious. The song breathes the pleasure and worship of ancient
tillers of the soil in the labours of the earth and in the goods the
mother gave. It has grown, it seems, out of the breast of earth
herself; earth is here the Mother of Men. The surface of earth is the
lap of the Goddess; in her womb let all growth be plentiful. Food is
in her for the needs of men. 'Hail be thou, Earth!' I daresay this
hymn was sung ten thousand years ago by the early Aryans on the Baltic
coast."
Even in a twelfth-century herbal we find a prayer to Earth, and it is
so beautiful that I close this chapter with it:--
"Earth,[37] divine goddess, Mother Nature who generatest all
things and bringest forth anew the sun which thou hast given
to the nations; Guardian of sky and sea and of all gods and
powers and through thy power all nature falls silent and
then sinks in sleep. And again thou bringest back the light
and chasest away night and yet again thou coverest us most
securely with thy shades. Thou dost contain chaos infinite,
yea and winds and showers and storms; thou sendest them out
when thou wilt and causest the seas to roar; thou chasest
away the sun and arousest the storm. Again when thou wilt
thou sendest forth the joyous day and givest the nourishment
of life with thy eternal surety; and when the soul departs
to thee we return. Thou indeed art duly called great Mother
of the gods; thou conquerest by thy divine name. Thou art
the source of the strength of nations and of gods, without
thee nothing can be brought to perfection or be born; thou
art great queen of the gods. Goddess! I adore thee as
divine; I call upon thy name; be pleased to grant that which
I ask thee, so shall I give thanks to thee, goddess, with
one faith.
"Hear, I beseech thee, and be favourable to my prayer.
Whatsoever herb thy power dost produce, give, I pray, with
goodwill to all nations to save them and grant me this my
medicine. Come to me with thy powers, and howsoever I may
use them may they have good success and to whomsoever I may
give them. Whatever thou dost grant it may prosper. To thee
all things return. Those who rightly receive these herbs
from me, do thou make them whole. Goddess, I beseech thee;
I pray thee as a suppliant that by thy majesty thou grant
this to me.
"Now I make intercession to you all ye powers and herbs and
to your majesty, ye whom Earth parent of all hath produced
and given as a medicine of health to all nations and hath
put majesty upon you, be, I pray you, the greatest help to
the human race. This I pray and beseech from you, and be
present here with your virtues, for she who created you hath
herself promised that I may gather you into the goodwill of
him on whom the art of medicine was bestowed, and grant for
health's sake good medicine by grace of your powers. I pray
grant me through your virtues that whatsoe'er is wrought by
me through you may in all its powers have a good and speedy
effect and good success and that I may always be permitted
with the favour of your majesty to gather you into my hands
and to glean your fruits. So shall I give thanks to you in
the name of that majesty which ordained your birth."
[Illustration: FROM A SAXON HERBAL
(Harl. 1585, folio 19_a_)]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Nec non et si quos sæcularis scientiæ libros nobis ignotos
adepturi sitis, ut sunt de medicinalibus, quorum copia est aliqua apud
nos, sed tamen segmenta ultra marina quæ in eis scripta comperimus,
ignota nobis sunt et difficilia ad adipiscendum.--Bonifac.,
_Epistolæ_, p. 102.
[3] A catalogue of the books of that foundation cited by Wanley
(Hickes, _Thesaur._ Vol. II. Præf. ad Catalogum) contains the entry
"Medicinale Anglicum," and the MS. described above has on a fly-leaf
the now almost illegible inscription "Medicinale Anglicum." There is
unfortunately no record as to the books which, on the dissolution of
the monasteries, may possibly have found their way from Glastonbury to
the royal library.
[4] This chapter consists of prescriptions containing drugs such as a
resident in Syria would recommend. It is interesting to find this
illustration of Asser's statement, that he had seen and read the
letters which the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent with presents to the
king. From Asser also we learn that King Alfred kept a book in which
he himself entered "little flowers culled on every side from all sorts
of masters." "Flosculos undecunque collectos a quibus libet magistris
et in corpore unius libelli mixtim quamvis sicut tunc suppetebat
redigere."--ASSER, p. 57.
[5] The stories of miraculous cures by famous Anglo-Saxon bishops and
abbots are for the most part too well known to be worth quoting, but
the unfair treatment of the leech is perhaps nowhere more clearly
shown than in Bede's tale of St. John of Beverley curing a boy with a
diseased head. Although the leech effected the cure, the success was
attributed to the bishop's benediction, and the story ends, "the youth
became of a clear countenance, ready in speech and with hair
beautifully wavy."
[6] A small but striking instance of Saxon knowledge, or rather close
observation, of plants is to be found in the following description of
wolf's teazle in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_:--"This wort hath leaves
reversed and thorny and it hath in its midst a round and thorny knob,
and that is brown-headed in the blossoms and hath white seed and a
white and very fragrant root." The word "reversed" is not in the
original and was therefore added by the Saxon translator, who had
observed the fact that all the thistle tribe protect their leaves by
thorns pointing backwards as well as forwards.
[7] It is interesting to remember that even as late as the sixteenth
century plantain was called "waybroad." See _Turner's Herbal_.
[8] There are numerous Latin MSS. of this book, chiefly in Italian
libraries, several being in the Laurentian Library at Florence. The
book was first printed at Rome, probably soon after 1480, by Joh.
Philippus de Lignamine, who was also the editor. De Lignamine, who was
physician to Pope Sixtus IV., says that he found this MS. in the
library of the monastery of Monte Cassino. In the first impression the
book is dedicated to Cardinal de Gonzaga; in the second impression to
Cardinal de Ruvere. (The copy in the British Museum is of the second
impression.) In this small quarto volume the illustrations are rough
cuts. It is interesting to remember that these are the earliest known
printed figures of plants. The printed text contains a large number of
Greek and Latin synonyms which do not appear in the Saxon translation.
Subsequent editions were printed in 1528 (Paris) and in the Aldine
Collection of Latin medical writers, 1547 (Venice).
[9] Cratevas is said to have lived in the first century B.C. Pliny,
Dioscorides and Galen all quote him.
[10] Erlanger, _Beiträge zur englischen Philologie_, No. XII. (+peri
didaxeôn+), eine Sammlung von Rezepten in englischer Sprache.
[11] Printed by De Renzi in _Collectio Salernitana_, Vol. IV. (Naples,
1856).
[12] _English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times._
[13] On the preceding blank page there is an inscription in late
seventeenth-century handwriting--
"This boucke with letters is wr [remainder of word illegible]
Of it you cane no languige make.
Ba C.
A happie end if thou dehre [dare] to make
Remember still thyn owne esstate,
If thou desire in Christ to die
Thenn well to lead thy lif applie
barbara crokker."
It is at least probable that Wanley, who at this period was collecting
Anglo-Saxon manuscripts for George Hickes, secured this MS. from
"barbara crokker." Her naïve avowal of her inability to read the MS.
suggests that she probably had no idea of the value of the book, and
when one remembers Wanley's reputation for driving shrewd bargains one
cannot help wondering what he paid for this treasure. Those must have
been halcyon days for collectors, when a man who had been an assistant
in the Bodleian Library with a salary of £12 a year could buy Saxon
manuscripts!
[14] _Herb. Ap._, I.
[15] For "elf-shot" herbal remedies see also _Leech Book_, III. 1, 61,
64.
[16] "The visitation raises again questions which were so anxiously
propounded three years ago. In what manner does an epidemic of this
kind arise? How is it propagated? We are still to a great extent in
the dark in regard to both these points. Indeed, it has recently been
suggested that we do not 'catch' influenza at all, but that certain
climatic or other conditions favour the multiplication on an important
scale of micro-organisms normally present in the human air passages.
It would be foolish to pretend to any opinion on a subject which is at
present almost entirely speculative: yet the theory we have quoted may
serve to show how complicated and difficult are the issues
involved."--_The Times_, January 13, 1922.
[17] Translation from Dr. Charles Singer's _Early English Magic and
Medicine_. Proceedings of the British Academy.
[18] _Leech Book of Bald_, Book II. 64.
[19] _Id._ Book I. 72. For other references to flying venom see _Leech
Book of Bald_, I. 113; II. 65.
[20] _Lacnunga_, 6.
[21] _Cuneiform Texts_, Part XVII. pl. 50.
[22] The directions for the vapour bath are given in such a brief and
yet forceful way that I cannot imagine anyone reading it without
feeling at the end as though he had run breathlessly to collect the
herbs, and then prepared the bath and finally made the ley of alder
ashes to wash the unfortunate patient's head. Like all these cheerful
Saxon prescriptions, this one ends with the comforting assurance "it
will soon be well with him," and one wonders whether in this, as in
many other cases, the patient got well in order to avoid his friends'
ministrations. The prescription for a vapour bath made with herbs runs
thus:--
"Take bramble rind and elm rind, ash rind, sloethorn, rind of apple
tree and ivy, all these from the nether part of the trees, and
cucumber, smear wort, everfern, helenium, enchanters nightshade,
betony, marrubium, radish, agrimony. Scrape the worts into a kettle
and boil strongly. When it hath strongly boiled remove it off the fire
and seat the man over it and wrap the man up that the vapour may get
up nowhere, except only that the man may breathe; beathe him with
these fomentations as long as he can bear it. Then have another bath
ready for him, take an emmet bed all at once, a bed of those male
emmets which at whiles fly, they are red ones, boil them in water,
beathe him with it immoderately hot. Then make him a salve. Take worts
of each kind of those above mentioned, boil them in butter, smear the
sore limbs, they will soon quicken. Make him a ley of alder ashes,
wash his head with this cold, it will soon be well with him, and let
the man get bled every month when the moon is five and fifteen and
twenty nights old."
[23] _Leech Book_, I. 60.
[24] _Lacnunga_, 48.
[25] In an incantation against fever we find the instruction:--
"The sick man ... thou shalt place
... thou shalt cover his face
Burn cypress and herbs ...
That the great gods may remove the evil
That the evil spirit may stand aside
. . . . . . .
May a kindly spirit a kindly genius be present."
R. Campbell Thompson, _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, p. 29.
See also p. 43. Cf. also Tobit vi. 7.
[26] _A Pomeranian Rite._--An attempt was made a few days ago to cast
a devil out of a woman living in a village of the Lauenberg district
of Pomerania, on the Polish frontier. She appears to have been of a
sour and somewhat hysterical temperament, and three of the village
gossips came to the conclusion that she was a victim of diabolical
possession and resolved to effect a cure by means of enchantment. They
first of all gathered the herbs needed for the purpose in the forest
at the proper conjunction of the stars. Then a tripod was formed of
three chairs, and to these the patient was bound. Beneath her was
fixed a pail of red-hot coal on which the herbs were scattered. As the
fumes of the burning weeds veiled the victim the three neighbours
crooned the prescribed exorcism. The louder the woman shrieked the
louder they sang, and after the process had been continued long enough
to prove effective, in their opinion, they ran away, believing that
the devil would run out of the woman after them. She, however,
continued to shriek. Her cries were heard by a man, who released
her.--_The Times_, December 5, 1921.
[27] It is interesting to find the same beliefs amongst the ancient
Babylonians.
"Fleabane on the lintel of the door I have hung
S. John's wort, caper and wheatears
With a halter as a roving ass
Thy body I restrain.
O evil spirit get thee hence
Depart O evil Demon.
. . . . . . .
In the precincts of the house stand not nor circle round
'In the house will I stand,' say thou not,
'In the neighbourhood will I stand,' say thou not.
O evil spirit get thee forth to distant places
O evil Demon hie thee unto the ruins
Where thou standest is forbidden ground
A ruined desolate house is thy home
Be thou removed from before me, By Heaven be thou exorcised
By Earth be thou exorcised."
Trans. of Utukke Limnûte Tablet "B." R. C. Thompson, _Devils and Evil
Spirits of Babylonia_.
[28] Sonny (_Arch. f. Rel._, 1906, p. 525), in his article "Rote Farbe
im Totenkulte," considers the use of red to be in imitation of blood.
The instruction to bind on with red is found even in the _Grete
Herball_ of 1526. "Apium is good for lunatyke Folke yf it be bounde to
the pacyentes heed with a lynen clothe dyed reed," etc.
[29] See W. G. Black, _Folk Medicine_.
[30] Even modern science has not yet succeeded in solving some of the
mysteries connected with this remarkable plant. For instance, although
the apple and the pear are closely related, mistletoe very rarely
grows on the pear tree, and there is no case on record of mistletoe
planted on a pear tree by human hands surviving the stage of
germination. There are, it is true, two famous mistletoe pears in this
country--one in the garden of Belvoir Castle and the other in the
garden of Fern Lodge, Malvern, but in both cases the seed was sown
naturally. It grows very rarely on the oak, and this possibly accounts
for the special reverence accorded by the Druids to the mistletoe oak.
[31] _Leech Book_, I. 81.
[32] _Lacnunga_, 9.
[33] This closely resembles a Cornish charm for a tetter.
"Tetter, tetter, thou hast nine brothers,
God bless the flesh and preserve the bone;
Perish thou, tetter, and be thou gone.
Tetter, tetter, thou hast eight brothers."
Thus the verses are continued until tetter having "no brother" is
ordered to be gone.--R. Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of
England_, p. 414.
[34] For further instances of the mystic use of three and nine see
also _Leech Book_, I. 45, 47, 67.
[35] St. Eloy, in a sermon preached in A.D. 640, also forbade the
enchanting of herbs:--
"Before all things I declare and testify to you that you shall observe
none of the impious customs of the pagans, neither sorcerers, nor
diviners, nor soothsayers, nor enchanters, nor must you presume for
any cause to enquire of them.... Let none regulate the beginning of
any piece of work by the day or by the moon. Let none trust in nor
presume to invoke the names of dæmons, neither Neptune, nor Orcus, nor
Diana, nor Minerva, nor Geniscus nor any other such follies.... Let no
Christian place lights at the temples or the stones, or at fountains,
or at trees, or at places where three ways meet.... Let none presume
to hang amulets on the neck of man or beast.... Let no one presume to
make lustrations, nor to enchant herbs, nor to make flocks pass
through a hollow tree, or an aperture in the earth; for by so doing he
seems to consecrate them to the devil. Let none on the kalends of
January join in the wicked and ridiculous things, the dressing like
old women or like stags, nor make feasts lasting all night, nor keep
up the custom of gifts and intemperate drinking. Let no one on the
festival of St. John or on any of the festivals join in the solstitia
or dances or leaping or caraulas or diabolical songs."--From a sermon
preached by St. Eloy in A.D. 640.
[36] A Christian prayer for a blessing on herbs runs thus:--
"Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui ab initio mundi omnia instituisti et
creasti tam arborum generibus quam herbarum seminibus quibus etiam
benedictione tua benedicendo sanxisti eadem nunc benedictione olera
aliosque fructus sanctificare ac benedicere digneris ut sumentibus ex
eis sanitatem conferant mentis et corporis ac tutelam defensionis
eternamque uitam per saluatorem animarum dominum nostrum iesum
christum qui uiuit et regnat dominus in secula seculorum. Amen."
[37] Translation from _Early English Magic and Medicine_ by Dr.
Charles Singer. Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. IV.
CHAPTER II
LATER MANUSCRIPT HERBALS AND THE EARLY PRINTED HERBALS
"Spryngynge tyme is the time of gladnesse and of love; for
in Sprynging time all thynge semeth gladde; for the erthe
wexeth grene, trees burgynne [burgeon] and sprede, medowes
bring forth flowers, heven shyneth, the see resteth and is
quyete, foules synge and make theyr nestes, and al thynge
that semed deed in wynter and widdered, ben renewed, in
Spryngyng time."--BARTHOLOMÆUS ANGLICUS, _circ._ 1260.
Between the Anglo-Saxon herbals and the early printed herbals there is
a great gulf. After the Norman Conquest the old Anglo-Saxon lore
naturally fell into disrepute, although the Normans were inferior to
the Saxons in their knowledge of herbs. The learned books of the
conquerors were written exclusively in Latin, and it is sad to think
of the number of beautiful Saxon books which must have been destroyed,
for when the Saxons were turned out of their own monasteries the
Normans who supplanted them probably regarded books written in a
language they did not understand as mere rubbish. Much of the old
Saxon herb lore is to be found in the leech books of the Middle Ages,
but, with one notable exception, no important original treatise on
herbs by an English writer has come down to us from that period. The
vast majority of the herbal MSS. are merely transcriptions of Macer's
herbal, a mediæval Latin poem on the virtues of seventy-seven plants,
which is believed to have been written in the tenth century. The
popularity of this poem is shown by the number of MSS. still extant.
It was translated into English as early as the twelfth century with
the addition of "A fewe herbes wyche Macer tretyth not."[38] In 1373
it was translated by John Lelamoure, a schoolmaster of Hertford. On
folio 55 of the MS. of this translation is the inscription, "God
gracious of grauntis havythe yyeue and ygrauted vertuys in woodys
stonys and herbes of the whiche erbis Macer the philosofure made a
boke in Latyne the whiche boke Johannes Lelamoure scolemaistre of
Herforde est, they he unworthy was in the yere of oure Lorde a. m.
ccc. lxxiij tournyd in to Ynglis." Macer's herbal is also the basis of
a treatise in rhyme of which there are several copies in England and
one in the Royal Library at Stockholm. This treatise, which deals with
twenty-four herbs, begins thus quaintly--
"Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and by
Als I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng toke
Of a gret ladys preste of gret name she barest."
The poem begins with a description of betony, powerful against "wykked
sperytis," and then treats, amongst other herbs, of the virtues of
centaury, marigold, celandine, pimpernel, motherwort, vervain,
periwinkle, rose, lily, henbane, agrimony, sage, rue, fennel and
violet. It is pleasant to find the belief that only to look on
marigolds will draw evil humours out of the head and strengthen the
eyesight.
"Golde [marigold] is bitter in savour
Fayr and [gh]elw [yellow] is his flowur
Ye golde flour is good to sene
It makyth ye syth bryth and clene
Wyscely to lokyn on his flowris
Drawyth owt of ye heed wikked hirores [humours].
. . . . . . .
Loke wyscely on golde erly at morwe [morning]
Yat day fro feueres it schall ye borwe:
Ye odour of ye golde is good to smelle."
The instructions for the picking of this joyous flower are given at
length. It must be taken only when the moon is in the sign of the
Virgin, and not when Jupiter is in the ascendant, for then the herb
loses its virtue. And the gatherer, who must be out of deadly sin,
must say three Pater Nosters and three Aves. Amongst its many virtues
we find that it gives the wearer a vision of anyone who has robbed
him. The virtues of vervain also are many; it must be picked "at
Spring of day" in "ye monyth of May." Periwinkle is given its
beautiful old name "joy of the ground" ("men calle it ye Juy of
Grownde") and the description runs thus:--
"Parwynke is an erbe grene of colour
In tyme of May he beryth blo flour,
His stalkys ain [are] so feynt [weak] and feye
Yet never more growyth he heye [high]."
Under sage we find the old proverb--"How can a man die who has sage in
his garden?"
"Why of seknesse deyeth man
Whill sawge [sage] in gardeyn he may han."
A manuscript of exceptional interest is one describing the virtues of
rosemary which was sent by the Countess of Hainault to her daughter
Philippa, Queen of England, and apart from its intrinsic interest it
is important from the fact that it is obviously the original of the
very poetical discourse on rosemary in the first printed English
herbal, commonly known as Banckes's herbal. Moreover, in this MS.
there is recorded an old tradition which I have not found in any other
herbal, but which is still current amongst old-fashioned country folk,
namely, that rosemary "passeth not commonly in highte the highte of
Criste whill he was man on Erthe," and that when the plant attains the
age of thirty-three years it will increase in breadth but not in
height. It is the oldest MS. in which we find many other beliefs about
rosemary that still survive in England. There is a tradition that
Queen Philippa's mother sent the first plants of rosemary to England,
and in a copy of this MS. in the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge, the translator, "danyel bain," says that rosemary was
unknown in England until the Countess of Hainault sent some to her
daughter.
The only original treatise on herbs written by an Englishman during
the Middle Ages was that by Bartholomæus Anglicus, and on the
plant-lover there are probably few of the mediæval writers who
exercise so potent a spell. Even in the thirteenth century, that age
of great men, Bartholomew the Englishman ranked with thinkers such as
Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus. He was accounted one
of the greatest theologians of his day, and if his lectures on
theology were as simple as his writings on herbs, it is easy to
understand why they were thronged and why his writings were so eagerly
studied, not only in his lifetime but for nearly three centuries
afterwards. A child could understand his book on herbs, for, being
great, he was simple. But although his work _De Proprietatibus Rerum_
(which contains nineteen books) was the source of common information
on Natural History throughout the Middle Ages, and was one of the
books hired out at a regulated price by the scholars of Paris, we know
very little of the writer. He spent the greater part of his life in
France and Saxony, but he was English born and was always known as
Bartholomæus Anglicus.[39] We know that he studied in Paris and
entered the French province of the Minorite Order, and later he became
one of the most renowned professors of theology in Paris. In 1230 a
letter was received from the general of the Friars Minor in the new
province of Saxony asking the provincial of France to send Bartholomew
and another Englishman to help in the work of that province, and the
former subsequently went there. We do not know the exact date of _De
Proprietatibus Rerum_, but it must have been written about the middle
of the thirteenth century; for, though it cites Albertus Magnus, who
was teaching in Paris in 1248, there is no mention of any of the later
authorities, such as Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon and Vincent de
Beauvais. It was certainly known in England as early as 1296, for
there is a copy of that date at Oxford, and there still exist both in
France and in England a considerable number of other manuscript
copies, most of which date from the latter part of the thirteenth
century and the early part of the fourteenth. The book was translated
into English in 1398 by John de Trevisa,[40] chaplain to Lord Berkeley
and vicar of Berkeley, and Bartholomew could scarcely have been more
fortunate in his translator. At the end of his translation, Trevisa
writes thus:--
"Endlesse grace blysse thankyng and praysyng unto our Lorde
God Omnipotent be gyuen, by whoos ayde and helpe this
translacon was endyd at Berkeleye the syxte daye of Feuerer
the yere of our Lorde MCCCLXXXXVIII the yere of y{e} reyne
of Kynge Rycharde the seconde after the Conqueste of
Englonde XXII. The yere of my lordes aege, syre Thomas,
Lorde of Berkeleye that made me to make this Translac[=o]n
XLVII."
Salimbene shows that the book was known in Italy in 1283, and there
are two MS. copies in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, of which
the earliest is dated 1297. Before Trevisa made his English
translation, it had been translated into French by Jehan Corbichon, in
1372, for Charles V. of France.
The book was first printed at Basle about 1470, and the esteem in
which it was held may be judged from the fact that it went through at
least fourteen editions before 1500, and besides the English and
French translations it was also translated into Spanish and Dutch. The
English translation was first printed by Caxton's famous apprentice,
Wynken de Worde.[41] The translator in a naïve little introductory
poem says that, just as he had looked as a child to God to help him in
his games, so now he prays Him to help him in this book.
"C[?]Rosse was made all of red .
In the begynning of my boke .
That is called, god me sped .
In the fyrste lesson that j toke .
Thenne I learned a and b .
And other letters by her names .
But alway God spede me .
Thought me nedefull in all games .
Yf I played in felde, other medes .
Stylle other wyth noyse .
I prayed help in all my dedes .
Of him that deyed upon the croys .
Now dyuerse playes in his name .
I shall lette passe forth and far .
And aventure to play so long game .
Also I shall spare .
Wodes, medes and feldes .
Place that I have played inne .
And in his name that all th[=i]g weldes .
This game j shall begynne. .
And praye helpe conseyle and rede .
To me that he wolde sende .
And this game rule and lede .
And brynge it to a good ende. ."
And in the preface Trevisa addresses his readers thus: "Merveyle not,
ye witty and eloquent reders, that I th[=y]ne of wytte and voyde of
cunning have translatid this boke from latin to our vulgayre language
as a thynge profitable to me and peradventure to many other, whych
understonde not latyn nor have not the knowledge of the proprytees of
thynges."
The seventeenth book of _De Proprietatibus Rerum_ is on herbs and
their uses, and it is full of allusions to the classical writers on
herbs--Aristotle, Dioscorides and Galen--but the descriptions of the
plants themselves are original and charming.
There is no record to show that Bartholomew the Englishman was a
gardener, but we can hardly doubt that the man who described flowers
with such loving care possessed a garden and worked in it. The
_Herbarius zu Teutsch_ might have been written in a study, but there
is fresh air and the beauty of the living flowers in Bartholomew's
writings. Of the lily he says: "The Lely is an herbe wyth a whyte
floure. And though the levys of the floure be whyte yet wythen shyneth
the lyknesse of golde." Bartholomew may have known nothing of the
modern science of botany, but he knew how to describe not only the
lily, but also the atmosphere of the lily, in a word-picture of
inimitable simplicity and beauty. One feels instinctively that only a
child or a great man could have written those lines. And is there not
something unforgettable in these few words on the unfolding of a
rose--"And wh[=a]ne they [the petals] ben full growen they sprede
theymselues ayenst the sonne rysynge"?
The chapter on the rose is longer than most, and is so delightful that
I quote a considerable part of it. "The rose of gardens is planted and
sette and tylthed as a vyne. And if it is forgendred and not shred and
pared and not clensed of superfluyte: th[=e]ne it gooth out of kynde
and chaungeth in to a wylde rose. And by oft chaunging and tylthing
the wylde rose torneth and cha[=u]gith into a very rose. And the rose
of ye garden and the wylde rose ben dyuers in multitude of floures:
smelle and colour: and also in vertue. For the leves of the wylde rose
ben fewe and brode and whytyssh: meddlyd wyth lytyll rednesse: and
smellyth not so wel as the tame rose, nother is so vertuous in
medicyn. The tame rose hath many leuys sette nye togyder: and ben all
red, other almost white: w{t} wonder good smell.... And the more they
ben brused and broken: the vertuo[=u]ser they ben and the better
smellynge. And springeth out of a thorne that is harde and rough:
netheles the Rose folowyth not the kynde of the thorne: But she
arayeth her thorn wyth fayr colour and good smell. Whan ye rose
begynneth to sprynge it is closed in a knoppe wyth grenes: and that
knoppe is grene. And wha[=n]e it swellyth thenne spryngeth out harde
leuys and sharpe.... And wh[=a]ne they ben full growen they sprede
theymselues ayenst the sonne rysynge. And for they ben tendre and
feble to holde togyder in the begynnynge; theyfore about those smale
grene leuys ben nyghe the red and tendre leuys ... and ben sette all
aboute. And in the mydill thereof is seen the sede small and yellow
wyth full gode smell."
[Illustration: WOODCUT OF TREES AND HERBS FROM THE SEVENTEENTH
BOOK OF "DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM"
Printed by Wynkyn de Worde (1495)]
There follows a description, too long to quote here, of the growth of
the rose hip, which ends with the remark: "But they ben not ful good
to ete for roughnesse that is hyd wythin. And greuyth [grieveth]
wythin his throte that ete thereof." ... "Among all floures of the
worlde," he continues, "the floure of the rose is cheyf and beeryth ye
pryse. And by cause of vertues and swete smelle and savour. For by
fayrnesse they fede the syghte: and playseth the smelle by odour, the
touche by softe handlynge. And wythstondeth and socouryth by vertue
ayenst many syknesses and euylles." A delicious recipe is given for
Rose honey. "Rose shreede smalle and sod in hony makyth that hony
medycynable wyth gode smelle: And this comfortyeth and clenseth and
defyeth gleymy humours."
Of the violet we read: "Violet is a lytyll herbe in substaunce and is
better fresshe and newe than whan it is olde. And the floure thereof
smellyth moost.... And the more vertuous the floure thereof is, ye
more it bendyth the heed thereof do[=u]warde. Also floures of
spryngynge tyme spryngeth fyrste and sheweth somer. The lytylnes
thereof in substaunce is nobly rewarded in gretnesse of sauour and of
vertue."
Bartholomew's descriptions of flowers are usually brief, and there is
a clarity and vividness about them which give them a charm peculiarly
their own. How fresh and English, for instance, is his chapter on the
apple. I have never before seen the taste of an apple described as
"merry," but how true the description is! "Malus the Appyll tree is a
tree yt bereth apples and is a grete tree in itself ... it is more
short than other trees of the wood wyth knottes and rinelyd Rynde.
And makyth shadowe wythe thycke bowes and braunches: and fayr with
dyuers blossomes, and floures of swetnesse and lykynge: with goode
fruyte and noble. And is gracious in syght and in taste and vertuous
in medecyne ... some beryth sourysh fruyte and harde and some ryght
soure and some ryght swete, with a good savoure and mery." The
descriptions of celandine and broom are also characteristic.
"Celidonia is an herbe w{t} yelowe floures, the frute smorcheth them
that it towchyth. And hyghte Celidonia for it spryngeth, other
blomyth, in the comynge of swalowes.... It hy[gh]t celidonia for it
helpith swallowes birdes yf their eyen be hurte other (or) blynde."
"Genesta hath that name of bytterness for it is full of bytter to
mannes taste. And is a shrubbe that growyth in a place that is
forsaken, stony and untylthed. Presence thereof is wytnesse that the
grounde is bareyne and drye that it groweth in. And hath many
braunches knotty and hard. Grene in wynter and yelowe floures in somer
thyche [the which] wrapped with heuy smell and bitter sauour. And ben
netheles moost of vertue." Bartholomew gives the old mandrake legend
in full, though he adds, "it is so feynd of churles others of
wytches," and he also writes of its use as an anæsthetic.[42] Further,
he records two other beliefs about the mandrake which I have never
found in any other English herbal--namely, that while uprooting it one
must beware of contrary winds, and that one must go on digging for it
until sunset. "They that dygge mandragora be besy to beware of
contrary wyndes whyle they digge. And maken circles abowte with a
swerder and abyde with the dyggynge unto the sonne goynge downe."
But apart from herbs and their uses, the book _De herbis_ is full of
fleeting yet vigorous pictures of the homely everyday side of mediæval
life. Bartholomew, being one of the greatest men of his century,
writes of matters in which the simplest of us are interested. He
tells us of the feeding of swine with acorns. Of the making and baking
of bread (including the thrifty custom of mixing cooked beans with the
flour "to make the brede the more hevy"). Incidentally, and with all
due respect, it may be remarked that he had no practical knowledge of
this subject, his vivid description being obviously that of an
interested spectator. There is an airy masculine vagueness about the
conclusion of the whole matter of bread-making--"and at last after
many travailes, man's lyfe is fedde and sustained therewith." He tells
us of the use of laurel leaves to heal bee and wasp stings and to keep
books and clothes from "moths and other worms," of the making of
"fayre images" and of boxes wherein to keep "spycery" from the wood of
the box-tree. Of the making of trestle tables "areared and set upon
feet," of playing boards "that men playe on at the dyes [dice] and
other gamys. And this maner of table is double and arrayd wyth dyerse
colours." Of the making of writing tables, of wood used for flooring
that "set in solar floors serue all men and bestys y{t} ben therein,
and ben treden of alle men and beestys that come therein," and so
strong that "they bende not nor croke [crack] whan they ben pressyd
w{t} heuy thynges layd on them." And also of boards used for ships,
bridges, hulks and coffers, and "in shypbreche [shipwreck] men fle to
bordes and ben ofte sauyd in peryll." Of the building of houses with
roofs of "trees stretchyd from the walles up to the toppe of ye
house," with rafters "stronge and square and hewen playne," and of
"the covering of strawe and thetche [thatch]." Of the making of linen
from the soaking of the flax in water till it is dried and turned in
the sun and then bound in "praty bundels" and "afterward knockyd,
beten and brayd and carflyd, rodded and gnodded; ribbyd and heklyd and
at the laste sponne," of the bleaching, and finally of its many uses
for making clothing, and for sails, and fish nets, and thread, and
ropes, and strings ("for bows"), and measuring lines, and sheets ("to
reste in"), and sackes, and bagges, and purses ("to put and to kepe
thynges in"). Of the making of tow "uneven and full of knobs," used
for stuffing into the cracks in ships, and "for bonds and byndynges
and matches for candelles, for it is full drye and takyth sone fyre
and brenneth." "And so," he concludes somewhat breathlessly, "none
herbe is so nedefull to so many dyurrse uses to mankynde as is the
flexe." Of the vineyard "closyd about wyth walles and wyth hegges,
with a wayte [watch] set in an hyghe place to kepe the vynyerde that
the fruyte be not dystroyed." Of the desolation of the vineyard in
winter, "but in harueste tyme many comyth and haunteth the vynyerde."
Of the delicious smell of a vineyard. Of the damage done by foxes and
swine and "tame hounds." "A few hounds," Bartholomew tells us, "wasten
and dystroye moo grapes that cometh and eteth therof theuylly
[thievishly]." "A vineyard," he concludes, "maye not be kepte nother
sauyd but by his socour and helpe that all thynge hath and possesseth
in his power and myghte. And kepyth and sauyth all lordly and
myghtily." And is there any other writer who in so few words tells us
of the woods in those days? Of the "beestis and foulis" therein as
well as the herbs, of the woods in summer-time, of the hunting
therein, of the robbers and the difficulty of finding one's way? Of
the birds and the bees and the wild honey and the delicious coolness
of the deep shade in summer, and the "wery wayfarynge trauelynge men"?
And the final brief suggestion of the time when forests were veritable
boundaries? I believe also that this is the only book in which we are
told of the interesting old custom of tying knots to the trees "in
token and marke of ye highe waye," and of robbers deliberately
removing them. The picture is so perfect that I give it in full:--
"Woods ben wide places wast and desolate y{t} many trees
growe in w{t}oute fruyte and also few hauyinge fruyte. And
those trees whyche ben bareyne and beereth noo manere
fruyte alwaye ben generally more and hygher tha[=n]e y{t}
wyth fruyte, fewe out taken as Oke and Beche. In thyse wodes
ben ofte wylde beestes and foulis. Therein growyth herbes,
grasse, lees and pasture, and namely medycynall herbes in
wodes fo[=u]de. In somer wodes ben bewtyed [beautied] wyth
bowes and braunches, w{t} herbes and grasse. In wode is
place of disceyte [deceit] and of huntynge. For therin wylde
beest ben hunted: and watches and disceytes [deceits] ben
ordenyd and lette of houndes and of hunters. There is place
of hidynge and of lurkyng. For ofte in wodes theuys ben hyd,
and oft in their awaytes and disceytes passyng men cometh
and ben spoylled and robbed and ofte slayne. And soo for
many and dyuerse wayes and uncerten strange men ofte erre
and goo out of the waye. And take uncerten waye and the waye
that is unknowen before the waye that is knowen and come oft
to the place these theues lye in awayte and not wythout
peryll. Therefore ben ofte knottes made on trees and in
busshes in bowes and in braunches of trees; in token and
marke of ye highe waye; to shewe the certen and sure waye to
wayefareynge men. But oft theuys in tornynge and metyng of
wayes chaunge suche knottes and signes and begyle many men
and brynge them out of the ryght waye by false tokens and
sygnes. Byrdes, foules and bein [bees] fleeth to wode,
byrdes to make nestes and bein [bees] to gadre hony. Byrdes
to kepe themself from foulers and bein [bees] to hyde
themself to make honycombes preuely in holowe trees and
stockes. Also wodes for thyknesse of trees ben colde with
shadowe. And in hete of the sonne wery wayfarynge and
trauelynge men haue lykynge to have reste and to hele
themself in the shadow. Many wodes ben betwyne dyuers
co[=u]trees and londes: and departyth theym asondre. And by
weuynge and castyng togyder of trees often men kepeth and
defendyth themself from enymies."[43]
Bartholomew's book on herbs ends thus: "And here we shall fynysshe
and ende in treatyng of the XVII boke whyche hath treated as ye may
openly knowe of suche thynges as the Maker of all thyng hath ordered
and brought forth by his myghty power to embelyssh and araye the erthe
wyth and most specyally for ye fode of man and beast."
At the end of the book is the poem which has caused so much
controversy amongst bibliographers. In this Wynken de Worde definitely
states that Caxton had a share in the first printing of this book at
Cologne:--
"And also of your charyte call to remembraunce
The soule of William Caxton first pr[=y]ter of this boke.
In laten tonge at Coleyn hyself to auauce
That every well disposed man may therein loke."
In spite of this, modern bibliographers are of opinion that Caxton
could not have played even a subordinate part in the printing of this
book at Cologne.
De Worde also refers to the maker of the paper[44]:--
"... John Tate the yonger ...
Which late hathe in England doo make this paper thynne
That now in our Englysh this boke is prynted Inne."
There is charm as well as pathos in the verses on the reproduction of
manuscripts in book form, showing us vividly what the recent discovery
of the art of printing meant to the scholars of that day. The simile
of Ph[oe]bus "repairing" the moon is very apt.
"For yf one thyng myght laste a M yere
Full sone comyth aege that frettyth all away;
But like as Phebus wyth his bemes clere
The mone repeyreth as bryght as ony day
Whan she is wasted ryght; so may we say
Thise bokes old and blynde whan we renewe
By goodly pryntyng they ben bryght of hewe."
The last verse of the poem is as follows:--
"Nowe gloryous god that regnest one in thre
And thre in one graunte vertu myght and grace
Unto the prynter of this werke that he
May be rewarded in thy heuenly place
And whan the worlde shall come before thy face
There to receue accordyng to desert
Of grace and mercy make hym then expert."
The treatise on herbs formed, as we have seen, only a part of
Bartholomew's _De Proprietatibus Rerum_, and, to speak strictly, the
first printed English herbal was the small quarto volume published by
Richard Banckes in 1525. It was the beginning of a series of small
books[45] chiefly in black letter. All of them, though issued from
different presses, have nearly the same title, and they vary only
slightly from the original _Banckes's Herbal_. The title of this
Herbal is--
"Here begynneth a new mater / the whiche sheweth and |
treateth of ye vertues & proprytes of her- | bes / the
whiche is called | an Herball ['.'] | ¶ Cum gratia &
priuilegio | a rege indulto |
"(_Colophon_) ¶ Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes / dwellynge
in | L[=o]d[=o] / a lytel fro ye Stockes in ye Pultry / ye
XXV day of | Marche. The yere of our Lorde MCCCCC. & XXV."
We do not know who the author of this book was, and it has been
suggested that it is based on some mediæval English manuscript now
lost. Certainly when one reads this anonymous work known as _Banckes's
Herbal_ one is struck not only by its superiority to the later and
more famous _Grete Herball_, but also by its greater charm. It gives
the impression of being a compilation from various sources, the author
having made his own selection from what pleased him most in the older
English manuscript herbals. It seems to have been a labour of love,
whereas the _Grete Herball_ is merely a translation. It is almost
certain that the writer made use of one of the numerous manuscript
versions of Macer's Herbal, which in parts _Banckes's Herbal_
resembles very closely, and the chapter on rosemary shows that he had
access to one of the copies of the manuscript on the virtues of
rosemary which was sent by the Countess of Hainault to Queen Philippa.
He does not give the beautiful old tradition preserved in that
manuscript,[46] but he ascribes wonderful virtues to this herb, with
the same loving enthusiasm and almost in the same words. Of rosemary
in _Banckes's Herbal_ we read:--
"Take the flowers thereof and make powder thereof and binde
it to thy right arme in a linnen cloath and it shale make
thee light and merrie.
"Take the flowers and put them in thy chest among thy
clothes or among thy Bookes and Mothes shall not destroy
them.
"Boyle the leaves in white wine and washe thy face therewith
and thy browes and thou shalt have a faire face.
"Also put the leaves under thy bedde and thou shalt be
delivered of all evill dreames.
"Take the leaves and put them into wine and it shall keep
the wine from all sourness and evill savours and if thou
wilt sell thy wine thou shalt have goode speede.
"Also if thou be feeble boyle the leaves in cleane water and
washe thyself and thou shalt wax shiny.
"Also if thou have lost appetite of eating boyle well these
leaves in cleane water and when the water is colde put
thereunto as much of white wine and then make sops, eat them
thereof wel and thou shalt restore thy appetite againe.
"If thy legges be blowen with gowte boyle the leaves in
water and binde them in a linnen cloath and winde it about
thy legges and it shall do thee much good.
"If thou have a cough drink the water of the leaves boyld in
white wine and ye shall be whole.
[Illustration: INITIAL LETTERS FROM "BANCKES'S HERBAL"]
"Take the Timber thereof and burn it to coales and make
powder thereof and rubbe thy teeth thereof and it shall keep
thy teeth from all evils. Smell it oft and it shall keep
thee youngly.
"Also if a man have lost his smellyng of the ayre that he
may not draw his breath make a fire of the wood and bake his
bread therewith, eate it and it shall keepe him well.
"Make thee a box of the wood of rosemary and smell to it and
it shall preserve thy youth."
That _Banckes's Herbal_ achieved immediate popularity is attested by
the fact that the following year another edition of it was issued, and
during the next thirty years various London printers issued the same
book under different titles.[47] Robert Wyer[48] ascribed the
authorship of those he issued to Macer, and in the edition of 1530 he
added, after "Macer's Herbal," "Practysed by Dr. Lynacro." Whether
this statement is true it is impossible to discover, but we know that
the great doctor died some years before Wyer set up as a printer, and
his name does not appear in any of the subsequent editions of the
herbal issued by other printers. In Wyer's edition there are some good
initial letters very similar to those used by Wynkyn de Worde.
The most interesting edition of the herbal is that printed by William
Copland, in which first appear the additional chapters on "The virtues
of waters stylled," "The tyme of gathering of sedes" and "A general
rule of all maner of herbes." He issued two editions bearing the same
title and differing only in the woodcuts and the colophon. The title
is "A boke of the | propreties of Herbes called an her- | ball,
whereunto is added the tyme y{e} | herbes, floures and Sedes shold |
be gathered to be kept the whole, ye- | re, with the vertue of ye
Herbes wh[=e] | they are stylled. Al- | so a generall rule of all
ma- | ner of Herbes drawen | out of an auncyent | booke of Phisyck |
by W. C." The woodcut in the first edition is three "Tudor" roses in a
double circle with a crown over one of the roses and across the riband
"K[=y]ge of floures." In the second edition the woodcut is a quaint
little representation of a lady seated in a garden. One man standing
behind her is holding her and another is walking towards her. The
three figures are near a wall, on the other side of which several men
are apparently conversing. Who W. C. was is uncertain. In the
_Dictionary of National Biography_ William Copland is said to be both
the author and the printer of the book, but in many catalogues
(notably in that of the British Museum) Walter Cary figures as the
author. In a lengthy account of the Carys in _Notes and Queries_
(March 29, 1913) Mr. A. L. Humphreys disposes conclusively of the
supposition that W. C. can stand for Walter Cary.
"_A Boke of the Properties of Herbes_ bears on the
title-page the initials W. C., which may stand either for
Copland or Cary. This was one of several editions of
_Banckes's Herbal_, then very popular, and although it may
have been edited or promoted in some way by a Walter Cary,
it could not have been by the one who wrote _The Hammer for
the Stone_. The 'Herball' was issued somewhere about 1550
and various editions of it exist, but all these appeared
when the Walter Cary we are considering was a child. There
is, however, a connection between the Carys and herbals,
because it is well known that Henry Lyte (1529-1607) of
Lytes Cary was the famous translator of Dodoens's _Herball_
(1578), and he had a herbal garden at Lytes Cary."
Ames in his _Typographical Antiquities_ describes the two editions,
which are identical, as though they were two different books, and
ascribes one to Walter Cary and the other to William Copland. We have
only Ames's authority for the supposition that Copland was the
compiler as well as the printer. The herbal in question is merely
another edition of _Banckes's Herbal_, but it is quite possible that
the three additional chapters at the end were "drawen out of an
auncyent booke of Physick" by Copland.[49]
Two editions of _Banckes's Herbal_ are ascribed, on account of the
wording of the title, to Antony Askham, and the title is so attractive
that it is a disappointment to find that the astrological additions
"declaryng what herbes hath influence of certain sterres and
constellations," etc., do not appear in any known copy of the herbal.
This astrological lore from the famous man who combined the
professions of priest, physician and astrologer in the reign of Edward
VI. would be of remarkable interest. But it has been pointed out by
Mr. H. M. Barlow[50] that, if the bibliographers who have attributed
the work to Askham had examined the title of the work with greater
care, they would have observed that the phrase "by Anthonye Askham"
refers not to the substance of the book itself (which is merely
another edition of _Banckes's Herbal_) but to the "Almanacke" from
which the additions were intended to be taken, though apparently they
were never printed. The title of "Askham's" Herbal is--
"A lytel | herball of the | properties of her- | bes newely
amended and corrected, | with certayne addicions at the ende
| of the boke, declarying what herbes | hath influence of
certaine Sterres | and constellations, whereby may be |
chosen the beast and most luckye | tymes and dayes of their
mini- | stracion, accordyinge to the | Moone being in the
sig- | nes of heauen, the | which is dayly | appoynted | in
the | Almanacke; made and gathered | in the yere of our
Lorde god | M.D.L. the XII. day of Fe- | bruary by Anthonye
| Askham Phi- | sycyon.
"(_Colophon._) Imprynted at | London in Flete- | strete at
the signe of the George | next to Saynte Dunstones | Churche
by Wylly- | am Powell. | In the yeare of oure Lorde | M.D.L.
the twelfe day of Marche."
There are some charming prescriptions to be found in "Askham's"
Herbal. Under "rose," for instance, we have recipes for "melroset,"
"sugar roset," "syrope of Rooses," "oyle of roses" and "rose water."
"Melrosette is made thus. Take faire purified honye and new
read rooses, the whyte endes of them clypped awaye, th[=a]
chop theym smal and put th[=e] into the Hony and boyl th[=e]
menely together; to know whan it is boyled ynoughe, ye shal
know it by the swete odour and the colour read. Fyve yeares
he may be kept in his vertue; by the Roses he hath vertue of
comfortinge and by the hony he hath vertu of clensinge.
"Syrope of Rooses is made thus. Some do take roses dyght as
it is sayd and boyle them in water and in the water strayned
thei put suger and make a sirope thereof; and some do make
it better, for they put roses in a vessell, hauing a
strayght mouthe, and they put to the roses hote water and
thei let it stande a day and a night and of that water,
putting to it suger, thei do make sirope, and some doe put
more of Roses in the forsaid vessel and more of hote water,
and let it stande as is beforesaide, and so they make a read
water and make the rose syrope. And some do st[=a]pe new
Roses and then strayne out the joyce of it and suger
therwyth, they make sirope: and this is the best making of
sirope. In Wynter and in Somer it maye be geuen competently
to feble sicke mel[=a]coly and colorike people.
"Sugar Roset is made thus--Take newe gathered roses and
st[=a]pe them righte smal with sugar, th[=a] put in a glasse
XXX. dayes, let it stande in ye sunne and stirre it wel, and
medle it well together so it may be kept three yeares in his
vertue. The qu[=a]titie of sugar and roses should be thus.
In IIII. pound of sugar a pounde of roses.
"Oyle of roses is made thus. Some boyle roses in oyle and
kepe it, some do fyll a glasse with roses and oyle and they
boyle it in a caudron full of water and this oyle is good.
Some stampe fresh roses with oyle and they put it in a
vessel of glasse and set it in the s[=u]ne IIII. dais and
this oyle is good.
"Rose water. Some do put rose water in a glass and they put
roses with their dew therto and they make it to boile in
water th[=a] thei set it in the sune tyll it be readde and
this water is beste."
Under the same flower we find this fragrant example of the widespread
mediæval belief in the efficacy of good smells:--
"Also drye roses put to ye nose to smell do c[=o]forte the
braine and the harte and quencheth sprite."
The herbalists were never weary of teaching the value of sweet
scents.[51] "If odours may worke satisfaction," wrote Gerard in his
_Herball_, "they are so soveraigne in plants and so comfortable that
no confection of the apothecaries can equall their excellent vertue."
One of the most delicious "scent" prescriptions in Askham is to be
found under Violet--"For th[=e] that may not slepe for sickness seeth
this herb in water and at euen let him soke well hys feete in the
water to the ancles, wh[=a] he goeth to bed, bind of this herbe to his
temples and he shall slepe wel by the grace of God."
The most curious recipe is that under "woodbinde." "Go to the roote of
woodbinde and make a hole in the middes of the roote, than cover it
well againe y{t} no ayre go out nor that no rayne go in, no water,
nor earth nor the sune come not to much to it, let it stande so a
night and a day, th[=a] after that go to it and thou shalt fynde
therein a certayne lycoure. Take out that lycoure with a spone and put
it into a clean glas and do so every day as long as thou fyndest ought
in the hole, and this must be done in the moneth of April or Maye,
than anoynt the sore therwith against the fyre, th[=a] wete a lynnen
clothe in the same lycoure and lappe it about the sore and it shal be
hole in shorte space on warrantyse by the Grace of God."
Unlike the later _Grete Herball_, Askham gives some descriptions of
the herbs themselves, notably in the case of alleluia (wood-sorrel),
water crowfoot, and asterion.
"This herbe alleluia m[=e] call it Wodsour or Stubwort, this
herbe hath thre leaves ye which be ro[=u]d a litel departed
aboue and it hath a whyte flour, but it hath no l[=o]ge
stalkes and it is Woodsoure and it is like thre leued
grasse. The vertue of this herbe is thus, if it be rosted in
the ashes in red docke leaves or in red wort leaves it
fretteth awai dead flesh of a wounde. This herbe groweth
much in woodes."
Water crowfoot: "This herb that men call water crowfoot hath
yelow floures, as hath crowfoot and of the same shap, but
the leves are more departed as it were Rammes fete, and it
hath a long stalke and out of that one stalke groweth many
stalkes smal by ye sides. This herb groweth in watery
places."
"Asterion or Lunary groweth among stoones and in high
places, this herb shyneth by night and he bringeth forth
purple floures hole and rounde as a knockebell or else lyke
to foxgloves, the leves of this herbe be rounde and blew and
they have the mark of the Moone in the myddes as it were
thre leved grasse, but the leaves therof be more and they be
round as a peny. And the stalk of this herb is red and thyse
herb semeth as it were musk and the joyce therof is yelow
and this groweth in the new Moone without leve and euery day
spryngeth a newe leaue to the ende of fyftene dayes and
after fyftene dayes it looseth euery day a leaue as the
Moone waneth and it springeth and waneth as doth the Moone
and where that it groweth there groweth great quantitie.
"The vertue of this herbe is thus--thei that eat of the
beris or of the herbe in waning of the moone, wh[=a] he is
in signo virginis if he have the falling euell he shal be
hole thereof or if he beare thys about his neck he shal be
holpen without doute. And it hath many more vertues than I
can tell at this tyme."
One of the unidentified herbs is called "sene," and we are given the
somewhat vague geographical information, "It groweth in the other syde
the sea and moste aboute Babilon."
* * * * *
Another small book printed by William Copland must be mentioned, for,
although it is not a herbal, it contains a great deal of curious herb
lore not to be found elsewhere. This is _The boke of secretes of
Albartus Magnus of the vertues of Herbes, Stones, and certaine
beastes_. Who the author was is unknown, but he was certainly not
Albert of Bollstadt (1193-1280), Bishop of Ratisbon, the scholastic
philosopher to whom it was ascribed, probably in order to increase its
sale. There is one philosophical remark which is not unworthy of the
famous Bishop: "Every man despiseth ye thyng whereof he knoweth
nothynge and that hath done no pleasure to him." But for the most part
it deals with the popular beliefs concerning the mystical properties
of herbs, stones and animals.
Of celandine the writer tells us: "This hearbe springeth in the time
in ye which the swallowes and also ye Eagles maketh theyr nestes. If
any man shal have this herbe with ye harte of a Molle (mole) he shall
overcome all his enemies.... And if the before named hearbe be put
upon the headde of a sycke man if he should dye he shal syng anone
with a loud voyce, if not he shall weep."
"Perwynke when it is beat[=e] unto pouder with wormes of ye earth
wrapped aboute it and with an herbe called houslyke it induceth love
between man and wyfe if it bee used in their meales ... if the sayde
confection be put in the fyre it shall be turned anone unto blue
coloure."
Of the herb which, he tells us, "the men of Chaldea called roybra," he
says: "He that holdeth this herbe in hys h[=a]de with an herbe called
Mylfoyle or yarowe or noseblede is sure from all feare and fantasye or
vysion. And yf it be put with the juyce of houselyke and the bearers
hands be anoynted with it and the residue be put in water if he entre
in ye water where fyshes be they wil gather together to hys handes ...
and if hys hande be draw[=e] forth they will leape agayne to theyre
owne places where they were before."
Of hound's tongue: "If ye shall have the aforenamed herbe under thy
formost toe al the dogges shall kepe silence and shall not have power
to bark. And if thou shalt put the aforesayde thinge in the necke of
any dogge so y{t} he maye not touche it with his mouthe he shalbe
turned always round about lyke a turning whele untill he fall unto the
grounde as dead and this hath bene proved in our tyme."
Of centaury: "If it be joyned with the bloude of a female lapwing or
black plover and be put with oyle in a lampe, all they that compasse
it aboute shal beleue themselves to be witches so that one shall
beleve of an other that his head is in heaven and his fete in the
earth. And if the aforesaid thynge be put in the fire whan the starres
shine it shall appeare y{t} the sterres runne one agaynste another and
fyght."
Of vervain: "This herbe (as witches say) gathered, the sunne beyng in
the signe of the Ram, and put with grayne or corne of pyonie of one
yeare olde healeth them y{t} be sicke of ye falling sykenes."
Of powder of roses: "If the aforesayde poulder be put in a lampe and
after be kindled all men shall appeare blacke as the deuell. And if
the aforesaid poulder be mixed with oyle of the olyue tree and with
quycke brymstone and the house anointed wyth it, the Sunne shyning, it
shall appeare all inflamed."
[Illustration: WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE "GRETE HERBALL"
(1526)]
Of verbena: "Infants bearing it shalbe very apte to learne and louing
learnynge and they shalbe glad and joyous."
It is the only book on the virtues of herbs in which I have found a
recipe to revive drowning flies and bees! This is to be done by
placing them in warm ashes of pennyroyal, and then "they shall recover
their lyfe after a little tyme as by ye space of one houre." The book
ends with a curious philosophical dissertation, "Of the mervels of the
worlde," which is followed by a series of charms--to stop a cock
crowing, to make men look as though they had no heads, to obtain rule
over all birds, to keep flies away from a house, to write letters
which can only be read at night, to make men look as though they had
"the countenance of a dog," to make men seem as though they had three
heads, to understand the language of birds, to make men seem like
angels, and to put things in the fire without their being consumed.
* * * * *
Though lacking in the charm of the quaint and typically English
_Banckes's Herbal_, the most famous of the early printed herbals was
the _Grete Herball_ printed by Peter Treveris in 1526.[52]
"The grete herball | whiche geueth parfyt knowlege and
under- | standyng of all maner of herbes & there gracyous
vertues whiche god hath | ordeyned for our prosperous
welfare and helth, for they hele & cure all maner | of
dyseases and sekenesses that fall or mysfortune to all maner
of creatoures | of god created, practysed by many expert and
wyse maysters, as Auicenna and | other &c. Also it geueth
full parfyte understandynge of the booke lately pryn | ted
by me (Peter treveris) named the noble experiens of the
vertuous hand | warke of surgery."
(_Colophon._) "Imprentyd at London in South- | warke by me
peter Treueris, dwel- | lynge in the sygne of the wodows |
In the yere of our Lorde god M.D. | XXVI the XXVII day of
July."
According to the introduction it was compiled from the works of "many
noble doctoures and experte maysters in medecines, as Auicenna,
Pandecta, Constantinus, Wilhelmus, Platearius, Rabbi Moyses, Johannes
Mesue, Haly, Albertus, Bartholomeus and more other." But with the
exception of the preface the _Grete Herball_ is a translation of the
well-known French herbal, _Le Grant Herbier_. Until about 1886 _Le
Grant Herbier_ was supposed to be a translation of the _Herbarius zu
Teutsch_, published at Mainz in 1485, or of the _Ortus Sanitatis_,
printed also at Mainz in 1491.[53] The _Herbarius zu Teutsch_, which
was probably compiled by a Frankfort physician, is a fine herbal
beautifully illustrated, and the later _Ortus Sanitatis_ is by some
authorities supposed to be a Latin translation of it. To judge from
the preface to the German Herbarius it was a labour of love,
undertaken by a man who apparently was possessed of ample wealth and
leisure; for in his preface he tells us that he "caused this
praiseworthy work to be begun by a Master learned in physic," and
then, finding that as many of the herbs did not grow in his native
land he could not draw them "with their true colours and form," he
left the work unfinished and journeyed through many lands--Italy,
Croatia, Albania, Dalmatia, Greece, Corfu, Candia, Rhodes, Cyprus, the
Holy Land, Arabia, Babylonia and Egypt. He was accompanied by "a
painter ready of wit and cunning and subtle of hand," and was thus
able to have the herbs "truly drawn." The book he compiled on his
return was long regarded as the original of the French herbal, _Le
Grant Herbier_, but in 1866 Professor Giulio Camus found two
fifteenth-century manuscripts in the Biblioteca Estense at Modena, one
the Latin work commonly known from the opening words as _Circa
Instans_, and the other a French translation of the same manuscript.
It was always supposed by medical historians that the _Circa Instans_
was written by Matthaeus Platearius of Salerno in the twelfth century,
but in Professor Camus's memoir, _L'Opéra Saleritana "Circa Instans"
ed il testo primitivo del "Grand Herbier in Francoys" secundo duo
codici del secolo XV conservati nella Regia Biblioteca Estense_, there
are reproduced the French verses in which occurs the line, "Il a esté
escript Millccc cinquante et huit," and Mr. H. M. Barlow[54] supports
the deduction that _Circa Instans_ was not written by a Salernitan
physician, but by a writer described in the verses as "Bartholomaeus
minid' senis" in 1458. _Le Grant Herbier_, of which the English _Grete
Herball_ is a translation, is a version of the French manuscript
translation of _Circa Instans_, and therefore, as _Circa Instans_ is
older than either the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_ or the Latin _Ortus
Sanitatis_, it would seem that it is the real original of our _Grete
Herball_. The preface to the _Grete Herball_, however, bears a strong
resemblance to that of the German Herbarius, of which I quote a part
from Dr. Arber's translation, made from the second (Augsburg) edition
of 1485. They have been placed in parallel columns to show how closely
the English preface follows that of the German Herbarius.
Preface to the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_.
"Many a time and oft have I contemplated
inwardly the wondrous
works of the creator of the universe:
how in the beginning He formed
the heavens and adorned them with
goodly shining stars, to which he
gave power and might to influence
everything under heaven. Also how
he afterwards formed the four elements:
fire, hot and dry--air, hot
and moist--water, cold and moist--earth,
dry and cold--and gave to
each a nature of its own; and how
after this the same Great Master of
Nature made and formed herbs of
many sorts and animals of all kinds
and last of all Man, the noblest of
all created things. Thereupon I
thought on the wondrous order which
the Creator gave these same creatures
of His, so that everything which
has its being under heaven receives
it from the stars and keeps it by
their help. I considered further how
that in everything which arises, grows,
lives or soars in the four elements
named, be it metal, stone, herb or
animal, the four natures of the elements,
heat, cold, moistness and
dryness, are mingled. It is also to
be noted that the four natures in
question are also mixed and blended
in the human body in a measure and
temperament suitable to the life and
nature of man; while man keeps
within this measure ... he is strong
and healthy, but as soon as he steps
or falls beyond ... which happens
when heat takes the upper hand and
strives to stifle cold or on the contrary
when cold begins to suppress
heat ... he falls of necessity into
sickness and draws nigh unto death.
... Of a truth I would as soon count
the leaves on the trees or the grains
of sand in the sea as the things
which are the causes of man's sickness.
It is for this reason that so
many thousands and thousands of
perils and dangers beset man. He is
not fully sure of his health or his
life for one moment. While considering
these matters, I also remembered
how the Creator of Nature,
who has placed us amid such dangers
has mercifully provided us with a
remedy, that is with all kinds of
herbs, animals and other created
things.... By virtue of these herbs
and created things the sick man may
recover the temperament of the four
elements and the health of his body.
Since then man can have no greater
nor nobler treasure on earth than
bodily health, I came to the conclusion
that I could not perform any
more useful and holy work than to
compile a book in which could be
contained the virtue and nature of
many herbs and other created things,
together with their true colours and
for the help of all the world, and the
common good, therefore I caused
this praiseworthy work to be begun
by a Master learned in physic who,
at my request gathered into a book
the nature and virtue of many herbs
out of the acknowledged masters of
physic, Galen, Avicenna, Serapio,
Dioscorides, Pandectarius, Platearius
and others."
Preface to _The Grete Herball_.
"Consyderynge the grete goodnesse
of almyghty God creatour of
heven and erthe, and al thynge
therin comprehended to whom be
eternall laude and prays etc. Consyderynge
the cours and nature of
the foure elementes and qualytees
where to ye nature of man is inclyned,
out of the whiche elementes issueth
dyvers qualytees infyrmytees and
dyseases in the corporate body of
man, but god of his goodnesse that
is creatour of all thynges hath
ordeyned for mankynd (whiche he
hath created to his own lykenesse)
for the grete and tender love, which
he hath unto hym, to whom all
thinges erthely he hath ordeyned to
be obeysant, for the sustentacyon
and helthe of his lovynge creature
mankynde whiche is onely made
egally of the foure elementes and
qualitees of the same, and when
any of these foure habounde or hath
more domynacyon, the one than the
other it constrayneth ye body of
man to grete infyrmytees or dyseases,
for the which ye eternall god hath
gyven of his haboundante Grace,
vertues in all maner of herbes to
cure and heale all maner of sekenesses
or infyrmytees to hym befallying
through the influent course
of the foure elementes beforesayd
and of the corrupcyons and ye
venymous ayres contrarye ye helthe
of man. Also of onholsam meates
or drynkes, or holsam meates or
drynkes taken ontemperatly whiche
be called surfetes that bryngeth a
man sone to grete dyseases or sekenesse,
whiche dyseases ben of nombre
and ompossoyble to be rehersed, and
fortune as well in vilages where as
nother surgeons nor phisicians be
dwellyng nygh by many a myle, as
it dooth in good townes where they
be redy at hande, wherefore brotherly
love compelleth me to wryte thrugh
ye gyftes of the holy ghost shewynge
and enformynge how man may be
holpen with grene herbes of the
gardyn and wedys of ye feldys as
well as by costly receptes of the
potycarys prepayred."
The illustrations in the _Grete Herball_ are poor, being merely
inferior copies of those in the later editions of the _Herbarius zu
Teutsch_.[55] In the majority of cases it is impossible to identify
the plant from the figure, and the same figure is sometimes prefixed
to different plants. But if the illustrations are poor and dull the
frontispiece and the full-page woodcut of the printer's mark are very
much the reverse. The frontispiece is a charming woodcut of a man
holding a spade in his right hand and gathering grapes, and a woman
throwing flowers and herbs out of her apron into a basket. There are
two figures in the lower corners, the one of a male and the other of a
female mandrake. The woodcut of the printer's mark at the end sheds an
interesting ray of light on the Peter Treveris who issued the two
first editions of this Herball.[56] The woodcut represents two
wodows[57] (savages), a man and a woman, on either side of a tree,
from which is suspended a shield with Peter Treveris's initials. Ames
supposes that Treveris was a native of Trèves and took his name from
that city, but it is more likely that he was a member of the Cornish
family of Treffry, which is sometimes spelt Treveris. A Sir John
Treffry, who fought at Poitiers, took as supporters to his arms a wild
man and woman, and one likes to find that one of his descendants
perpetuated the memory of his gallant ancestor by adopting the same
sign for his trade device.
The _Grete Herball_ is alphabetically arranged, for the idea of the
natural relationship of plants was unknown at that time. But we find a
"classification" of fungi. "Fungi ben musherons. There be two maners
of them, one maner is deadly and sleeth them that eateth of them and
the other dooth not"! As in most sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
herbals, there are quaint descriptions of a good many things besides
herbs. The most gruesome of these is a substance briefly described as
"mummy," and the accompanying illustration is of a man digging beside
a tomb. "Mummy," one reads, "is a maner of spyces or confectyons that
is founde in the sepulchres or tombes of dead bodyes that haue be
confyct with spyces. And it is to wyte that in olde tyme men were wont
to confyct the deed corpses and anoynte them with bawme and myre
smellynge swete. And yet ye paynims about babylon kepe that custome
for there is grete quantity of bawme. And this mummye is specially
founde about the brayne and about the maronge in the rydge bone. For
the blode by reason of the bawme draweth to the brayne and thereabout
is chauffed. And lykewise is the brayne brent and parched and is the
quantyte of mommye and so the blode is mroeued in the rydge of the
backe. That mommye is to be chosen that is bryght blacke stynkynge and
styffe. And that y{t} is whyt and draweth to a dymme colour and that
is not stynkynge nor styffe, and that powdreth lightly is naught. It
hath vertue to restrayne or staunche."[58]
[Illustration: WOODCUT OF PETER TREVERIS' SIGN OF THE "WODOWS"
FROM THE "GRETE HERBALL" (1529)]
[Illustration: WOODCUT FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE FOURTH EDITION
OF THE "GRETE HERBALL" (1561)]
Other substances described are salt, cheese, pitch, lead, silver,
gold, amber, water, starch, vinegar, butter, honey and the lodestone.
The dissertation on water shows very clearly that our ancestors
regarded bathing as a fad, and a dangerous fad at that. The writer
gloomily observes, "many folke that hath bathed them in colde water
haue dyed or they came home." And those who are foolish enough to
drink water he warns by quoting the authority of "Mayster Isaac," who
"sayth that it is impossible for them that drynketh overmuche water in
theyr youth to come to ye age that God hath ordeyned them." In the
description of the lodestone we find the well-known popular belief
about ships being drawn to their destruction. "The lodestone, the
adamant stone that draweth yren hath myghte to draw yren as Aristotle
sayth. And is founde in the brymmes of the occyan see. And there be
hillis of it and these hyllis drawe ye shippes that haue nayles of
yren to them and breke the shyppes by drawynge of the nayles out." The
accompanying illustration is of a sinking ship with a man going
towards the hill of adamant with uplifted hands, while another man is
swimming, and a third sits calmly in the ship.
In view of the free use of honey in olden times, the account of honey
in the _Grete Herball_ seems inadequate. "Hony is made by artyfyce and
craft of bees. The whyche bees draweth the thynnest parte of the
floures and partelye of the thickest and moost grosse and thereof
maketh hony and waxe and also they make a substaunce that is called
the honycombe. The tame hony is that that is made in the hous or hyues
that labourers ordeyneth for the sayd bees to lodge and worke in. Hony
is whyte in cold places and browne in warm place. And hony ought to be
put in medicyne and may be kept C yeeres. There is an other that is
called wylde hony and is found in woodes and is not so good as the
other and is more bytter. Also there is a honey called castanea
because it is made of chestayne floures that the bees sucketh and is
bytter."
In the _Grete Herball_, as in _Banckes's Herball_, we find numerous
instances of the use of herbs as amulets or for their effect on the
mind, and for the smoking of patients with their fumes. I quote the
following:--
"Betony. For them that be ferfull. For them that ben to
ferfull gyue two dragmes of powdre hereof wt warme water and
as moche wyne at the tyme that the fere cometh."
"Buglos. To preserve the mynde. This herbe often eaten
confermeth and conserueth the mynde as many wyse maysters
sayth."
"To make folke mery. Take the water that buglos hath b[=e]
soden in and sprynkle it about the hous or chambre and all
that be therein shall be mery."
"Vervain. To make folke mery at ye table. To make all them
in a hous to be mery take foure leaves and foure rotes of
vervayn in wyne, than spryncle the wine all about the hous
where the eatynge is and they shall be all mery."
"Musk. Agaynst weyknesse of the brayne smel to musk."
"Struci[=u]n. Against lytargye blowe the powdre of the sede
in to the nose or elles sethe the sede thereof and juice of
rue in stronge vyneygre and rubbe the hynder parte of ye
head therwith."
"Artemisia. To make a child mery hange a bondell of mugwort
or make smoke thereof under the chylde's bedde for it taketh
away annoy for hem."
"Rosemary. For weyknesse of ye brayne. Agaynst weyknesse of
the brayne and coldenesse thereof, sethe rosmarin in wyne
and lete the pacyent receye the smoke at his nose and kepe
his heed warme."
"Southernwood. The fume of it expelleth all serpents out of
the house and what so ever there abydeth dyeth."
There are two delicious violet recipes for "Syrope of Vyolettes" and
"oyle of vyolettes."
"Syrope of vyolettes [=i] made in this maner--Sethe
vyolettes in water and lete it lye all nyght in ye same
water. Than poure and streyne out the water, and in the same
put sugre and make your syrope.
"Oyle of vyolettes is made thus. Sethe vyolettes in oyle and
streyne it. It will be oyle of vyolettes."
It is in this herbal that we find the first avowal of disbelief in the
supposed powers of the mandrake.
"There be two maners the male and the female, the female
hath sharpe leves. Some say that it is better for medycyne
than the male but we use of bothe. Some say that the male
hath figure of shape of a man. And the female of a woman but
that is fals. For Nature never gaue forme or shape of
m[=a]kynde to an herbe. But it is of troughe that some hath
shaped suche fygures by craft as we have fortyme herde say
of labourers in the feldes."
The _Grete Herball_ ends thus--
"O ye worthy reders or practicyens to whome this noble
volume is pres[=e]t. I beseche you take intellygence and
beholde ye workes and operacy[=o]s of almighty god which
hath endewed his symple creature mankynde with the graces of
ye holy goost to have parfyte knowlege and understandynge of
the vertue of all manner of herbes and trees in this booke
comprehendyed and everyche of them chaptred by hymselfe and
in every chaptre dyuers clauses where is shewed dyuers maner
of medycunes in one herbe comprehended whiche ought to be
notyfyed and marked for the helth of man in whom is repended
ye hevenly gyftes by the eternall Kynge to whom be laude and
prayse everlastynge. Amen."
The only important books Treveris published besides the _Grete
Herball_ were the two English translations of Hieronymus
Braunschweig's works (_The noble experyence of the virtuous
Handy-worke of Surgeri_ and _The vertuouse Book of the Dystillacion of
the Waters of all maner of Herbes_) and the handsome edition of
Trevisa's translation of Higden's _Polychronicon_. _The vertuouse Book
of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbes_ is well
printed, but the illustrations are from the same inferior German cuts
as those in the _Grete Herball_. The book was translated into English
by Laurence Andrew and, though strictly it does not come within the
category of herbals, part of the preface is too beautiful to omit.
"Lerne the hygh and meruelous vertue of herbes. Knowe how inestimable
a preservative to the helth of man god hath provyded growying euery
daye at our hande, use the effectes with reverence, and give thankes
to the maker celestyall. Beholde how moch it excedeth to use medecyne
of efycacye naturall by God ordeyned then wicked wordes or charmes of
efycacye unnaturall by the dyuell enuented, whiche yf thou doste well
marke, thou shalt have occasyon to gyue the more louynges and praise
to oure sauyour, by redynge this boke and knowlegying his benyfites
innumerable. To whose prayse, and helthe of all my crysten bretherne,
I have taken upon me this symple translacyon, with all humble
reverence ever redy to submit me to the correccion of the lerned
reder."
FOOTNOTES:
[38] See Bibliography of English MS. Herbals.
[39] He is sometimes erroneously called Bartholomew de Glanville.
Leland, without citing any authority, called him de Glanville. Bale
copied Leland in 1557 and added a list of writings wrongly attributed
to Bartholomew. Quétif and Echard give detailed reasons in pointing
out Leland's error. The Parmese chronicler, Salimbene, writing in
1283, refers to him as Bartholomæus Anglicus, and John de Trittenheim,
Abbot of Sparheim (end of fifteenth century), speaks of him as
"Bartholomeus natione Anglicus." M. Leopold Delisle endeavoured to
claim him as a Frenchman, but although he spent the greater part of
his life abroad, he was always distinguished as "Bartholomæus
Anglicus." That he was a Minorite "de provincia Francia" is no proof
that he was a Frenchman. Batman (1582), on the authority of Bale,
describes Bartholomæus as being "of the noble familie of the Earles of
Suffolk."
[40] John de Trevisa, a Cornishman, was a Fellow of Exeter College,
Oxford, and subsequently of Queen's College. He afterwards became
chaplain to Lord Berkeley and vicar of Berkeley.
[41] Wynkyn de Worde's real name was Jan van Wynkyn (de Worde being
merely a place-name), and in the sacrist's rolls of Westminster Abbey,
1491-1500, he figures as Johannes Wynkyn.
[42] "The rind thereof medled with wine ... gene to them to drink that
shall be cut in their body for they should slepe and not fele the sore
knitting."
[43] Under "Birch" there is another touch of life in the woods in the
Middle Ages. "Wylde men of wodes and forestes useth that sede instede
of breede [bread]. And this tree hath moche soure juys and somwhat
bytynge. And men useth therfore in spryngynge tyme and in haruest to
slyt the ryndes and to gader ye humour that comyth oute therof and
drynkyth in stede of wyn. And such drynke quencheth thurste. But it
fedyth not nother nourryssheth not, nother makyth men dronke."
[44] In regard to this paper (probably the first made in England for
printing) see Bibliography, p. 204.
[45] For dates, full titles, etc., of all the editions of _Banckes's
Herbal_ see Bibliography of English Herbals.
[46] See p. 44.
[47] See Bibliography of English Herbals.
[48] Robert Wyer was one of the most famous printers of the early
sixteenth century. He came of a Buckinghamshire family and was
probably a near relation of John Wyer, also a printer who lived in
Fleet Street, for both of them used the device of St. John the
Evangelist. He served his apprenticeship to Richard Pynson, whose
printing press was in the rentals of Norwich House near the site of
the present Villiers Street, and on Pynson's death succeeded to the
business. In both his editions of the herbal there is his well-known
device of St. John the Evangelist bareheaded and dressed in a flowing
robe, sitting under a tree on an island and writing on a scroll spread
over his right knee. At his right hand is an eagle with outstretched
wings holding an inkwell in its beak, and in the background are the
towers and spires of a great city.
[49] Ames catalogues two other editions of the herbal by "W. C.," one
published by Anthony Kitson and the other by Richard Kele, but no
known copies of these exist.
[50] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.
[51] The popular belief in the power of sweet-smelling herbs to ward
off infection of the much-dreaded plague rose to its height in Charles
II.'s reign, when bunches of rosemary were sold for six and
eightpence. Till recently there were at least two survivals of this
belief in herbal scents--the doctor's gold-headed cane (formerly a
pomander carried at the end of a cane) and the little bouquets carried
by the clergy at the distribution of the Maundy Money in Westminster
Abbey.
[52] For dates of later editions see Bibliography of English Herbals.
[53] For fuller bibliographical details of the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_
and the _Ortus Sanitatis_ see Bibliography of Foreign Herbals.
[54] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.
[55] The illustrations in the second and later editions of the
_Herbarius zu Teutsch_ are very inferior to those in the first, which
are beautiful. _The vertuose boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all
maner of Herbes_ (1527), translated by Laurence Andrew from the _Liber
de arte distillandi_ by Hieronymus Braunschweig, is illustrated with
cuts from the same wood-blocks as the _Grete Herball_.
[56] Titles and dates of the subsequent editions issued by Thomas
Gibson (1539) and Jhon Kynge (1561) will be found in the Bibliography
of English Herbals.
[57] Treveris had his printing office in Southwark, at the sign of the
"Wodows."
[58] The use of "mummy" is not only mentioned by all the later
herbalists up to the end of the seventeenth century, but is even to be
found in MS. still-room books. In the Fairfax still-room book a recipe
for wounds said to have been procured from "Rodolphus Goclerius,
professor of Phisicke in Wittenburghe," begins thus: "Take of the moss
of a strangled man 2 ounces, of the mumia of man's blood, one ounce
and a halfe of earth-worms washed in water or wine and dyed," etc.
CHAPTER III
TURNER'S HERBAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN HERBALISTS
"In the beginning of winter the Goldfinches use muche to
haunte this herbe [teazle] for the sedes sake whereof they
are very desyrous."--_Turner's Herbal_, 1551.
Like so many sixteenth-century notabilities, William Turner, commonly
known as the father of English botany, was remarkably versatile, for
he was a divine, a physician and a botanist. He was a native of
Morpeth, Northumberland, and was born in Henry VIII.'s reign: the
exact date is unknown. His father is supposed to have been a tanner.
We know nothing of his early education, but he entered what is now
Pembroke College,[59] Cambridge, under the patronage of Thomas Lord
Wentworth. This he himself tells us in the preface to the second part
of his herbal, which is dedicated to Lord Wentworth of the next
generation. "And who hath deserved better to have my booke of herbs to
be given to him, than he, whose father with his yearly exhibition did
helpe me, beying student in Cambridge of Physik and philosophy?
Whereby with some further help and study am commed to this pore
knowledge of herbes and other simples that I have. Wherefore I
dedicate unto you this my litle boke, desyring you to defende it
against the envious evil speakers, which can alow nothing but that
they do themselves: and the same I give unto your Lordship, beseeching
to take it in the stede of a better thyng, and for a token of my good
will toward you, and all your father's houshold, which thing if ye
do, as sonne as I shall have convenient lesure, ye shall have the
third and last parte of my herball also. Almighty God kepe you and all
youres. Amen."
At Cambridge Turner was intimate with Nicholas Ridley (afterwards the
famous Bishop of London), and though it is interesting to know that
Ridley instructed him in Greek, it is even more attractive to learn
that the future bishop also initiated him into the mysteries of tennis
and archery. Turner did well at the university, for he was elected
Junior Fellow of his college in 1531 and Joint Treasurer in 1532, and
he had a title for Orders in 1537. Throughout his life he was a
staunch Protestant and at Cambridge he used to attend the preachings
of Hugh Latimer. We do not know how long Turner held his fellowship,
possibly till his marriage with Jane, daughter of George Ander,
Alderman of Cambridge. He left Cambridge in 1540 and travelled about,
preaching in various places. In Wood's _Athenæ Oxonienses_ we read,
"In his rambles he settled for a time in Oxon among several of his
countrymen that he found there, purposely for the conversation of men
and books.... At the same time and after, following his old trade of
preaching without a call, he was imprisoned for a considerable
time."[60] On his release he left England and travelled in Italy,
Germany and Holland. He tells us in his herbal that he visited
Cremona, Como, Milan, Venice and Chiavenna, and at Bologna[61] he
studied botany under Luca Ghini. Either there or at Ferrara he took
his M.D. degree. From Italy he went to Zurich, where he formed his
intimate and lifelong friendship with Conrad Gesner,[62] the famous
Swiss naturalist.
He subsequently visited Basle and Cologne, and it was in these two
cities that his small religious books upholding the Protestant cause
were printed. They were very popular in England, so much so that in
the last year of Henry VIII.'s reign they were prohibited. Turner
spent some time botanising in the Rhine country: in his herbal he
speaks of different plants which he collected at Bonn, Basel, Bingen,
Cologne, "Erenffelde" and "Sieburg." Then he went to Holland and East
Friesland--the latter he frequently mentions--and became physician to
the "Erle of Emden." It was probably at this time that he explored the
islands off the mainland. He was in correspondence with "Maister Riche
and maister Morgan, Apotecaries of London," two names which, it is
interesting to note, occur also in de l'Obel's works and in Gerard's
Herbal.
Turner wrote the first part of his Herbal when he was abroad, but he
delayed publication until the conclusion of his wanderings. On his
return to England he became chaplain and physician to the Duke of
Somerset, and it is generally believed that he sat in the House of
Commons.[63] He was promised the prebend of Botevant in York, and in a
letter written to thank Cecil for the promise we find the remark, "My
chylder have bene fed so long with hope that they are very leane, i
wold fayne have th[=e] fatter if it were possible."
Turner held this appointment for little more than two years, and after
failing to obtain either the provostship of Oriel College, Oxford, or
the presidency of Magdalen, he seems to have become despondent. He
wanted a house "where i may studie in and have s[=u] place to lay my
bookes in," and in another letter he complains of "being pened up in a
chamber with all my ho[use] holde seruantes and children as shepe in a
pyndfolde.... i can not go to my booke for ye crying of childer and
noyse yt is made in my chamber." Finally he begged leave to go abroad,
"where I will also finishe my great herball and my bookes of fishes,
stones and metalles if God send me lyfe and helthe." He was
subsequently made Dean of Wells, but he lost this office on the
accession of Mary, and, like so many of the Protestant divines, he
went abroad. He stayed at Bonn, Frankfort, Freiburg, Lauterburg [?
Lauenburg], Mainz, Rodekirche, Strasburg, Speyer, Worms, Cologne and
Weissenburg. At Cologne and Weissenburg he had gardens, and it was
from Cologne that he published the second part of his Herbal. His
works were proclaimed heretical for the second time in 1555, and the
Wardens of every Company had to give notice of any copy they had in
order that they might be destroyed. It is not surprising that Turner's
works are rare!
On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to England and was
reinstated in the deanery of Wells.[64] His diocesan seems to have
found him troublesome, for in 1559 the Bishop of Bath and Wells wrote:
"I am much encombred with mr. Doctor Turner Deane of Welles
for his indiscreete behavior in the pulpit where he medleth
w{th} all matters.... I have advertised him by wrytynges and
have admonished secretly by his owne frendes:
notwithstanding he persisteth still in his follie: he
conte[=n]eth all Bishopps and calleth th[=e] white coats,
typpett gentlem[=e], with other wordes of reproche [mu]che
more unsemlie and asketh 'who gave them autoritie more ouer
me then I ouer them'?
"GILBERT BATH AND WELLS."
_January 24,
1559-60._
There is a story told that Turner trained his dog at a given sign to
snatch the bishop's square cap off his head when the prelate was
dining with him. If this is true, possibly it accounts for the fact
that he was subsequently suspended for Nonconformity, after which,
being precluded from clerical duties, he left Wells and returned to
London. He lived in Crutched Friars and, like the two other
Elizabethan herbalists, had a famous garden. He was in failing health
when he completed his herbal, and there is extant a pathetic letter
(the greater part of it written by an amanuensis) to his staunch
patron Lord Burleigh, which is signed "Your old and seikly client
wllm turner doctor of physic."
Turner died in 1568, and was buried in S. Olave's, Crutched Friars,
where the tablet to his memory can still be seen.
CLARISSIMO . DOCTISSIMO . FORTISSIMOQUE . VIRO | GULIELMO .
TURNERO . MEDICO . AC . THEOLOGICO . PERITISSI | MO .
DECANO . WELLENSI . PER . ANNOS . TRIGINTA . IN . VTRAQUE |
SCIENTIA . EXERCITATISSIMVS . ECCLESIAE . ET . REI . PUBLICAE |
PROFVIT . ET . CONTRA . VTRIVSQUE . PERNITIOSISSIMOS . HOS |
TES . MAXIME . VERO . ROMANUM . ANTICHRISTVM . FORTISSIMUS |
JESU . CHRISTI . MILES . ACERRIME . DIMICAVIT . AC . TANDEM .
COR | PUS . SENIO . ET . LABORIBUS . CONFECTVM . IN . SPEM .
BEATISSIM : |
RESVRRECTIONIS . HIC . DEPOSVIT . ANIMAM . IMMORTALEM |
CHARISSIMO . EIVSQUE . SANCTISSIMO . DEO . REDDIDIT . ET .
DEVICTIS . CHRISTI . VIRTUTE . MVNDI . CARNISQUE . VIRIBUS .
TRIUMPHAT IN AETERNUM .
MAGNVS . APOLLINEA . QVONDAM . TVRNERVS . IN . ARTE
MAGNUS . ET . IN . VERA . RELIGIONE . FVIT .
MORS . TAMEN . OBREPENS . MAIOREM . REDDIDIT ILLVM .
CIVIS . ENIM . CAELI . REGNA . SVPERNA . TENET
OBIIT . 7 DIE . IVLII . AN . DOM . 1568 .
In his will, which is too long to quote here, Turner bequeathed to his
wife[65] "his best pece or syluer vessell and halfe dozen of syluer
spones," and to his nephew "my lyttell furred gowne." Peter, the son
to whom he left "all my writen bookes and if he be a preacher all my
diuinitie bookes, & yf he practise Phisicke all my physicke bookes,"
had some knowledge of plants, for in a copy of Turner's Herbal in the
Linnean Society's Library there is a long list of errata for which
Peter Turner apologised in an Address to the Reader. There is
something very naïve and charming about Peter's admiration for his
father's "fame and estimation." He tells us that he has diligently
compared the printed book with his father's "owne hande copie," and
refrains from having the whole book printed again because "I should
have done against Charitie to have caused the Printer by that meanes
to lose all his labor and cost which he hath bestowed in printing
hereof. Wherefore, gentle Reader, beare a little with the Printer that
never was much accustomed to the printing of Englishe and afore thou
reade over this booke correct it as I haue appointed and then the
profit thereof will abundantly recompense thy paynes. In the meane
time vse this Herbale in stede of a better and give all laude and
prayse unto the Lorde."
Turner was the first Englishman who studied plants scientifically, and
his herbal marks the beginning of the science of botany in England.
Like most writers of any value, he impressed his personality upon his
books, and these show him to have been a man of indomitable character,
caustic wit and independent thought. "Vir solidae eruditionis judicii"
he is called by John Ray. His first botanical work was the _Libellus
de re herbaria novus_ (1538), printed by John Byddell in London. This
little book is particularly interesting, because it is the first in
which localities of native British plants are given. In 1548 he
published another small book entitled _The names of herbes in Greke,
Latin, Englishe, Duche, and Frenche wyth the commone names that
Herbaries and Apotecaries use, gathered by William Turner_. In the
preface he tells us that he had begun to "set furth an herbal in
latyn," but that when he asked the advice of physicians, "their advise
was that I shoulde cease from settynge out of this boke in latin till
I had sene those places of Englande, wherein is moste plentie of
herbes, that I might in my herbal declare to the greate honoure of our
countre what numbre of sovereine and strang herbes were in England,
that were not in other nations, whose counsell I have folowed,
deferrying to set out my herbal in latyn, tyl that I have sene the
west countrey, which I never sawe yet in al my lyfe, which countrey of
al places of England, as I heare say, is moste richely replenished
wyth al kindes of straunge and wonderfull workes and giftes of nature
as are stones, herbes, fishes and metalles, when as they that moued
me to the settyng furth of my latin herbal, hearde this so reasonable
an excuse, they moved me to set out an herbal in Englishe as Fuchsius
dyd in latine wyth the discriptions, figures and properties of as many
herbes, as I had sene and knewe, to whom I could make no other answere
but that I had no such leasure in this vocation and place that I am
nowe in, as is neccessary for a man that shoulde take in hande suche
an interprise. But thys excuse coulde not be admitted for both
certeine scholars, poticaries, and also surgeons, required of me if
that I woulde not set furth my latin herbal, before I have sene the
west partes, and have no leasure in thys place and vocation to write
so great a worke, at the least to set furth my judgement of the names
of so many herbes as I knew, whose request I have accomplished, and
have made a litle boke, which is no more but a table or regestre of
suche bokes as I intende by the grace of God to set furth hereafter;
if that I may obteine by your graces healp such libertie and leasure
with convenient place, as shall be necessary for suche a purpose."
Turner's notable work, his Herbal, is the only original work on botany
written by any Englishman in the sixteenth century. The first part of
it was printed in London by Steven Mierdman, a Protestant refugee from
Antwerp, in 1551. The second part was printed by Arnold Birckman, at
Cologne, in 1561, during Turner's enforced exile. Birckman also
printed the edition of 1568, which contained all three parts. (For the
full title, etc., see Bibliography of Herbals, p. 208.)
One of the most attractive features of this Herbal is the number of
beautiful woodcuts with which it is illustrated. A few were specially
drawn and cut for the author, but the great majority are reproductions
of the exquisite drawings in Fuchs's herbals (_De historia Stirpium_,
1545; and _Neue Kreüterbuch_, 1543). Nearly all the illustrations in
the famous sixteenth-century Flemish, English and Swiss herbals were
printed from the actual wood-blocks or copied from the illustrations
in Fuchs's works. Notably in Hieronymus Bock's _Kreüter Buch_ (1546),
Rembert Dodoens's _Cruÿdtboeck_ (1554), Henry Lyte's _Niewe Herball_
(1578), and Jean Bauhin's _Historia plantarum universalis_ (1651). It
is a remarkable fact that so far as wood-engraving is concerned this
country has contributed nothing to the art of plant illustration. In
the first English illustrated Herbal, the _Grete Herball_ of 1526, the
figures are merely copies of the inferior cuts in the later editions
of the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_, and, with the exception of Parkinson's
_Paradisus_, all the English sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century
herbals borrowed their illustrations from Flemish or German sources.
Fuchs had two sets of blocks for his Herbal, one for the folio edition
of 1542 and the other for the octavo edition of 1545. It was the
blocks for the latter which were borrowed by Turner's printer, and it
has been suggested that it was his desire to secure these beautiful
illustrations which led him to have his herbal printed at Cologne.[66]
Over 400 of Fuchs's blocks were used in the complete edition of
Turner's Herbal, and, of the rest, some are copied from the smaller
figures in Mattioli's[67] commentary on Dioscorides.
Turner dedicated the first part of his Herbal (1551) to the Duke of
Somerset, uncle to Edward VI., and at that time Lord Protector. The
preface is delightful and I quote a part of it:--
"To the mighty and christiane Prince Edward, Duke of
Summerset, Erle of Herford, Lorde Beauchampe, and Uncle unto
the Kynges maiesty, Wyllyam Turner his servant wysheth
increase in the knowledge of Goddes holy worde and grace to
lyue thereafter. Although (most myghty and Christian Prince)
there be many noble and excellent actes and sciences, which
no man douteth but that almyghty God, the author of all
goodness, hath gyuen unto us by the hands of the Hethen, as
necessary unto the use of Mankynd: yet is there none among
them all, whych is so openly c[=o]mended by the verdit of
any holy writer in the Bible, as is ye knowledge of plantes,
herbes, and trees and of Phisick. I do not remembre that I
have red anye expressed commendations of Grammer, Logick,
Philosophie, naturall or morall, Astronomie, Arithmetyke,
Geometry, Cosmographie, Musycke, Perspectiue or any other
such lyke science. But I rede amonge the commendatyons and
prayses of Kyng Salomon, that he was sene in herbes shrubbes
and trees and so perfectly that he disputed wysely of them
from the hyghest to the lowest, that is from the Cedre tre
in Mount Liban unto the Hysop that groweth furth of the
wall. If the Knowledge of Herbes, shrubbes and trees which
is not the lest necessary thynge unto the knowledge of
Phisicke were not greatly commendable it shulde never have
bene set among Salomon's commendacyons and amongst the
singular giftes of God. Therefor whereas Salomon was
commended for the Knowledge of Herbes the same Knowledge was
expressedly ynough co[=m]ended there also." Continuing, he
speaks of learned Englishmen "Doctor Clement, Doctor Wendy
and Doctor Owen, Doctor Wolton and Maister Falconer"[68]
which "have as much knowledge in herbes yea and more than
diuerse Italianes and Germanes whyche have set forth in
prynte Herballes and bokes of simples. Yet hath none of al
these set furth any thyng other to the generall profit of
hole Christendome in latin and to the honor of thys realme,
nether in Englysh to the proper profit of their naturall
countre." After slyly observing that perhaps they do not
care to jeopardise their estimation, he compares himself,
for having ventured to write this book, with the soldier
"who is more frendly unto the commonwealth, which
adventurously runneth among the myddes of hys enemyes, both
gyuyng and takyng blowes, then he that, whilse other men
feight, standeth in the top of a tre iudging how other men
do, he beynge without the danger of gonne shot himself."
To those who may object that it is too small, he explains that he will
write more fully when he has "travelled diverse shyres in England to
learn more of the herbs that grow there." Others may condemn him for
writing in English, "for now (say they) every man without any study of
necessary artes unto the knowledge of Phisick will become a Phisician
... euery man nay euery old wyfe will presume, not without the mordre
of many, to practyse Phisick." To these he succinctly replies, "How
many surgianes and apothecaries are there in England which can
understand Plini in Latin or Galen and Dioscorides?" The English
physicians, he says, rely on the apothecaries, and they in turn on the
old wives who gather the herbs. Moreover, since the physicians are not
present when their prescriptions are made up, "many a good m[=a] by
ignorance is put in jeopardy of his life, or good medecine is marred
to the great dishonesty both of the Phisician and of Goddes worthy
creatures." All this can be avoided by having a herbal written in
English. Dioscorides and Galen, he points out, wrote in their native
tongue, Greek. "Dyd Dioscorides and Galen give occasion for every old
wyfe to take in h[=a]d the practise of Phisick? Did they giue any iust
occasion of murther? If they gaue no occasyon unto every old wyfe to
practise physike then give I none. If they gave no occasion of murther
then gyue I none ... then am I no hynderer wryting unto the English my
countremen an English herball."
The second part of Turner's Herbal is dedicated to his old patron,
Thomas Lord Wentworth, and the complete work, including the third
part, to Queen Elizabeth.[69] In the preface to this last he reminds
the queen of a conversation he had had with her in Latin eighteen
years before, at the Duke of Somerset's house, when he was physician
to that nobleman. It is in this preface also that he criticises the
foreign herbalists; though he has learnt much from them, they had much
to learn from him, "as their second editions maye testifye." He claims
that in the first part of his herbal he taught "the truth of certeyne
plants which these above-named writers (Matthiolus, Fuchsius, Tragus
and Dodoneus) either knew not at al or ellis erred in them
greatlye.... And because I would not be lyke unto a cryer yt cryeth a
loste horse in the marketh, and telleth all the markes and tokens that
he hath, and yet never sawe the horse, nether coulde knowe the horse
if he sawe him: I wente into Italye and into diverse partes of
Germany, to knowe and se the herbes my selfe."
The book owes much of its charm to its vivid descriptions of the
plants, and the fascinating and unexpected details he gives us about
them. The comparison of dodder, for instance, to "a great red harpe
strynge," is a happy touch which it is impossible to forget. "Doder
groweth out of herbes and small bushes as miscelto groweth out of
trees. Doder is lyke a great red harpe strynge and it wyndeth about
herbes foldyng mych about them and hath floures and knoppes one from
an other a good space.... The herbes that I have marked doder to growe
most in are flax and tares."
These accurate observations and careful descriptions are
characteristic of the writer, and recall similar touches in the Saxon
herbals. For example, he records that the stamens of the Madonna lily
have a different smell from the flower itself, and that the berries of
the bay tree are almost, but not quite, round. There is only space to
quote the following:--
"The lily hath a long stalk and seldom more than one,
howbeit it hath somtyme II. It is II or III cubites hyghe.
It hath long leves and somthyng of the fashion of the great
satyrion. The flour is excedyng white and it hath the forme
or fashion of a long quiver, that is to say, smal at the
one end and byg at the other. The leves of the floures are
full of crestes, and the overmost ends of the leves bowe a
little backwarde and from the lowest parte within come forth
long small yelow thynges lyke thredes of another smelle than
the floures are of. The roote is round and one pece groweth
hard to another allmoste after the maner of the roote of
Garleke, but that the clowes in the lily are broder."
"The leaves of the Bay tree are alwayes grene and in figure
and fashion they are lyke unto periwincle. They are long and
brodest in the middest of the lefe. They are blackishe grene
namely when they are olde. They are curled about the edges,
they smell well. And when they are casten into the fyre they
crake wonderfully. The tre in England is no great tre, but
it thryveth there many partes better and is lustier than in
Germany. The berries are allmoste round but not altogether.
The kirnell is covered with a thick black barke which may
well be parted from the kirnell."
"Blewbottel groweth in ye corne, it hath a stalke full of
corners, a narrow and long leefe. In the top of the stalke
is a knoppy head whereupon growe bleweflowers about
midsummer. The chylder use to make garlandes of the floure.
It groweth much amonge Rye wherefore I thinke that good ry
in an evell and unseasonable yere doth go out of kinde in to
this wede."
"Pennyroyal.--It crepeth much upon the ground and hath many
lytle round leves not unlyke unto the leves of merierum
gentil but that they are a little longer and sharper and
also litle indented rounde about, and grener than the leves
of meriurum ar. The leves grow in litle branches even from
the roote of certayn ioyntes by equall spaces one devyded
from an other. Where as the leves grow in litle tuftes upon
the over partes of the braunches.... Pennyroyal groweth
much, without any setting, besyd hundsley [Hounslow] upon
the heth beside a watery place."
Of camomile he writes: "It hath floures wonderfully
shynynge yellow and resemblynge the appell of an eye ... the
herbe may be called in English, golden floure. It will
restore a man to hys color shortly yf a man after the longe
use of the bathe drynke of it after he is come forthe oute
of the bath. This herbe is scarce in Germany but in England
it is so plenteous that it groweth not only in gardynes but
also VIII mile above London, it groweth in the wylde felde,
in Rychmonde grene, in Brantfurde grene.... Thys herb was
consecrated by the wyse men of Egypt unto the sonne and was
rekened to be the only remedy of all agues."
Unlike modern authorities, Turner contends that our English hyssop is
the same plant as that mentioned in the Bible, and he also describes a
species which does not now exist. "We have in Sumershire beside ye
c[=o]m[=e] Hysop that groweth in all other places of Englande a kinde
of Hysop that is al roughe and hory and it is greater muche and
stronger then the c[=o]men Hysop is, som call it rough Hysop." Another
plant which seems to have disappeared and which, he states, no other
writer describes, is "the wonderful great cole with leaves thrise as
thike as ever I saw any other cole have. It hath whyte floures and
round berryes lyke yvy. This herbe groweth at douer harde by the
Sea-syde. I name it the Douer cole because I founde it first besyde
Douer." Incidentally he mentions samphire also as growing at Dover.
It is interesting to find that Turner identifies the _Herba
Britannica_ of Dioscorides and Pliny (famed for having cured the
soldiers of Julius Cæsar of scurvy in the Rhine country) with
_Polygonum bistorta_, which he observed plentifully in Friesland, the
scene of Pliny's observations. This herb is held by more modern
authorities to be _Rumex aquations_ (great water dock).
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATIONS FROM TURNER'S "HERBAL"]
Throughout the Herbal there are recollections of the north of England,
where the author spent his boyhood. Of heath, for instance, he tells
us: "The hyest hethe that ever I saw groweth in Northumberland,
which is so hyghe that a man may hyde himself in." Of the wild
hyacinth he writes: "The boyes in North[=u]berland scrape the roote of
the herbe and glew theyr arrowes and bokes wyth that slyme that they
scrape of." Of sea-wrake (seaweed) he tells us: "In the Bishopriche of
Durham the housbandmen of the countie that dwel by the sea syde use to
fate [fatten, _i. e._ manure] their lande with seawrake." Under
"birch" we find: "Fisherers in Northumberland pyll off the uttermost
barke and put it in the clyft of a sticke and set in fyre and hold it
at the water syde and make fish come thether, whiche if they se they
stryke with theyr leysters or sammon speres. The same," he continues,
"is good to make hoopes of and twigges for baskettes, it is so
bowinge. It serveth for many good uses and for none better then for
betinge of stubborne boyes that ether lye or will not learne."
Cudweed "is called in Northumberland chafwede because it is thought to
be good for chafyng of any man's fleshe wyth goynge or rydynge." And
it would be interesting to know if the daisy is still called banwurt
in the north. "The Northern men call thys herbe banwurt because it
helpeth bones to knyt agayne.... Plinie writeth that the dasey hath
III and sometimes IV little whyte leves whiche go about the yelow
knope, it appereth that the double Daseys were not founde in plinies
tyme whych have a greate dele mo then Plini maketh mention of."
There are other country customs which he records. "Shepherds use
clivers [goosegrass
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